Walk Against the Wind
by katakoi
Summary: This story is set after 14 years have passed in the feudal era. Naraku has been defeated, but the kazanna curse hasn't disappeared. The new protagonist is the beautiful and strong daughter of Sango and Miroku. [complete]
1. Chapter 1

Youkai Taijiya Byaku

The villagers fled and screamed in terror as a gigantic ogre-type youkai rampaged through their streets, destroying every building in its path. Its movements were sluggish, but its heavy bulk, enhanced by a shikon shard, allowed it to send a small shockwave through the ground with each step. Amidst the panic, a small boy tripped. When he turned and saw the ogre's one eye gazing upon him, he found himself paralyzed with fear.

The father tried to fight her way through the stampeding crowd, shouting, "let me through! That's my son!" But it was to no avail. The ogre licked its lips with its large slimy tongue, anticipating a quick snack before the main course. Its palm lifted the boy to its salivating mouth, readying to clench him between its jaws, but before the last moment, in the instant of a flash, a large weapon cut through its wrist, then circled back to return to its owner.

A young woman, no more than 13 years old, caught Hikraikotsu gracefully with her right hand and presented her left to safely gather the boy. The villagers were no longer in chaos, but instead stood dumbfounded by the young girl's strength. The father was able to find his way through to his son.

"Thank goodness!" he cried, hugging his child preciously. "You're Sango's daughter, aren't you? Then is Sango on the way? What luck, the village will be saved! You should hide until she gets here."

She seemed to smile, yet kept her cool as she replied, "There's no reason for me to hide. I am Taijiya Byaku; I am more than enough to take care of this weak youkai." She then began to return to the battlefield, but midway, she said to the father somewhat sharply, "take care of your child."

Standing alone, she faced her enemy, more than ten times her height. She was the spitting image of her mother, retaining all of her beauty and poise. She was dressed in the standard extermination gear, but with violet plating.

The ogre began attacking with a barrage of punches, causing dust to fly everywhere. The villagers waited impatiently, as the wind blew away the dust. They couldn't believe what they saw. Not only had Byaku successfully defended and survived through the series of attacks, but also she had protected the village property from any damage. It was convincing enough that one might mistake the scene and think no battle had ever taken place, and neither of them were ever there.

Byaku now stood safely atop one of the rooftops, letting her hair flow freely by the wind's will. The ogre seemed to worry, but was still relentless in its attack. It clenched its fist tightly and reared its arm back as if to finish everything in one enormous move, but Byaku easily dodged and began to run up the ogre's arm.

"It's over!" she yelled as she jumped over its head and quickly threw hiraikotsu over her shoulder. Hiraikotsu shredded through the ogre's chest; however, it was still breathing.

"You misjudged the wind, little girl," the ogre laughed roughly, "a mistake the great Sango-sama wouldn't have made. Many of my demon brethren were killed by her; now I will have my revenge on her tiny little daughter." The wind carried hiraikotsu away from the battlefield, placing it a far distance away from Byaku's grasp. "It seems you are much weaker than your mother! I will take pleasure in defeating you!"

Byaku said nothing and remained completely calm as the attack approached her; however, in her head the same words repeated, the words she had said to herself so many times before: "My mother trained me. My mother was strong. I am strong. But mother was also weak. It was not her fault. I will not be weak like mother, mother who fell love with that man." She proceeded to raise her left hand, palm out, revealing a mysterious rosary seal.

"Kazanna!"

She released the seal and directed the vacuum at hiraikotsu. The ogre charged, but she quickly reclaimed her weapon and flung it expertly. The first strike cut off both legs, and as the body fell the boomerang returned and cut through the neck. She noticed the shine of a shikon fragment, and after removing it, the corpse disappeared entirely.

The villagers applauded her and offered her many gifts, but she politely refused. She had heard of her father's scandals, and vowed never to act so disgustingly.

"I'll take this shard as payment, but I would like some information. I'm searching for someone named Kohaku. Does anybody know who he is or where I can find him? It is my mother's wish, that I kill him." 


	2. Chapter 2

Village Elder Shihai

The villagers recommended that Byaku visit the village elder; if there was someone who might know of Kohaku, then it would be him. With Kiara, her feline companion, following her, she attempted to make her way to the elder's house; however, she found herself lost.

"I wonder where it could be," she asked maybe herself, maybe Kiara, "according to the villagers' directions I was supposed to turn left when I faced the dragon statue... but now I'm here..."

Kiara mewed, maybe for amusement, maybe to answer her new owner's question. She eventually caught her owner's attention when she suddenly assumed her battle form, and unleashed a fierce growl that one would never expect from once such a small and cute animal to be capable of.

"Kiara, what is it?" She had no idea what Kiara had sensed, but she trusted her intuition and grasped the hilt of her sword to be safe.

Suddenly, she felt a presence behind her. She turned and instantly found herself staring at a young, handsome man. He had a gentle smile and very tranquil quality to him. She blushed, but she convinced herself it was a coincidence.

"How long have you been there?" she demanded.

"I'm sorry if I surprised you," he replied with a soft, calming voice. "I just wanted to gaze at your beautiful face from afar. Oh, don't worry. I didn't mean anything by it. Are you lost?"

She coincidentally blushed again. She found she could not trust his convincing voice; after all, she knew what men were: they professed love without sincerity and hurt the ones they promised eternal happiness.

"I-I'm looking for the elder's house..." she said awkwardly, then quickly added, "but, I don't need your help!"

With a bright smile, he walked past her and approached Kiara, who was still growling tensely. He patted her head gently, and immediately she reverted back to her normal domestic form.

"I can show you the way, if you like. I'm on my way there anyway."

"Then, it that case, I will accept your generosity." (She was reluctant; in other words, a part of her wanted to follow him.)

"This is probably where you were tricked." The newly formed trio had returned to the dragon statue. "Sometimes the wind can cause that waterfall there create a perfect reflection of things; in other words, if we turn around..."

Byaku found that the real statue resembled completely the wind's guile. They continued, and after walking for some time, she noticed the wind change slightly and when she looked over her shoulder, the reflection was gone.

The elder's hut's outer appearance appeared ordinary, but the interior was oddly filled with relaxing fumes, statues, and markings. It was candlelit, like a room used for rituals. The room was empty, except for the two of them, and Kiara.

"Where is the elder?" Byaku asked.

"Maybe," the young man replied with an interesting laugh, "if you turn around you'll see him. The wind is perfect right now."

Trusting the wicked wind's trickery, she obliged. When she turned, she saw the reflection of the young man. She almost raised her hand to touch it as if to test its integrity, but it soon disappeared with another slight variation of the wind.

"Then you are the elder!"

"I'm truly sorry if I surprised you, again. I am the village elder, Shihai."

"I, wasn't surprised," she lied. "You are very young for a village elder."

"You are very young for a taijiya. I heard you saved my village from that youkai. Thank you. I also heard you refused any reward. How humble of you. I must admit I don't have a lot to offer you... my village is often targeted by youkai, so it is very poor."

"That's alright," she said, suddenly regaining her tough, determined tone, though he could sense a tint of sadness in her voice. "The villagers told me you might know something about Kohaku."

"Yes, I know that name. I would suggest not getting involved with him. Wherever he goes, there's always a bloody massacre. It's a pity."

"That's probably the reason why I have to kill him. I fully intend to do so."

"I can see that. Then I'll tell you, but please be careful. From what I know, he's always on the move. He'll most likely be accompanied by a woman named Kagura. You can't take her lightly; some say she has the power to control the wind, though personally I don't believe that. He was last seen at the village north of here; it's a three-day walk."

"You seem to know a lot."

"Gossip finds ways to travel; the wind carries from ear to ear. This village is said to be where all of the winds of the world meet; well, it's the legend anyway."

"By the way, did that youkai have a shikon shard?"

"No." She didn't know what she said that. "Thank you for everything. Then, I will be leaving."

"Please wait. Stay in my village at least for tonight. You need to rest after that battle, and I can supply you with at least a little bit of rationing for your journey. And tomorrow the wind should be more favourable. It's the least I can do."

"Then... I suppose I'll accept your hospitality." (She was reluctant.) 


	3. Chapter 3

Midnight Rumble

Byaku found herself in a hot spring offered by the inn she was staying at. She wondered what was wrong with her today. When she was with that man, she felt somehow different; she felt she could forget all her reasons for fighting, and find new reasons for living. But it was impossible that she would be affected by man; she told herself that.

"He's like everyone else," she spewed. "He's probably spying on me right now."

She thought she heard a sound. but the only other with her was Kiara. She wanted to start her search for Kohaku right away, but she painfully had to admit that the bath was relaxing, and a good rest was tempting. Sighing, she went to her room. From the window, she could see the moon had already risen over a darkling sky.

She found herself unable to properly sleep; exasperating dreams interrupted her as always. To her, those old memories were nothing but a nuisance. She remembered her father only as a lecher, a belying of faith, promise, and eternity. She remembered her mother always in pain, because of father, because of father. She remembered her mother always crying, because of father, because of father. She remembered her father dying, father dying...

She awoke at the sound of a warning signal. She could faintly hear a voice announcing that three ogres were attacking the village. She quickly switched into her taijiya appearance and ran outside to meet the threat, with Kiara obediently following.

She could hear the ogres chanting: "The wind calls us here. The wind leads us. The wind calls us. The wind leads us here." It was odd, their way of chanting, like they had no will of their own.

The villagers had a small force of men to defend against such attacks, but she could see that they were ill trained and possessed only tattered weapons.

"I'll take care of them," she told them, hoping they wouldn't worry, but she knew they would worry.

With the streets practically empty, she found she could fight much more freely. After putting on a protective mask, she released a poisonous gas she had learned ogres were weak against. The fumes rose into the air and agitated the ogres' eyes, causing them to turn bright red.

Flying on Kiara, she launched Hikraikotsu with a superb curve, cutting through all three of the ogres. They died quickly, but came back to life quickly too. It was not a useless move though, as Byaku was able to pinpoint where the shikon shards were, glowing in the moonlight.

She prepared to launch the finishing blow, but noticed that the villagers were poised to attack. She tried to warn them away, but their attack came unexpectantly. The arrows, connected to strong ropes encircled Byaku and Kiara and pulled them both to the ground.

"I was careless," she told herself, wishing she could have anticipated the mens' betrayal. "Why are you doing this?" she demanded as one of them lifted a katana to strike her.

"Our elder's orders," was the zombie-like answer.

Of course. This was the elder's true nature. His kindness was nothing but an act, to coax puppets to fall under his strings. But she refused to be a puppet. Using the hidden sword in her right arm, she freed herself from the rope and dodged the katana. Using only her fists, she quickly knocked the men unconscious, being careful not to hurt them too badly.

She noticed that the ogres were now making their way sluggishly to the elder's house, causing destruction in their path; she assumed the elder was connected. She freed Kiara from the ropes so she could resume her chase.

She was able to reach Shihai's house first. She dismounted Kiara and burst into the hut, and noticed him kneeling in the centre of the room performing a ritual. His eyes suddenly seemed sinister, and the atmosphere became chilling.

"You lied to me," she snarled angrily. "Who are you really?"

"You lied to me too," he returned, avoiding the question. "I knew you had a shikon shard. All the youkai that attack this village have shards." He revealed he was holding the shikon shard, which appeared to be the central figure of the ritual.

"When did you?"

"At the hot springs."

"Then you really were there!"

"Don't worry. I didn't do anything suspicious."

"You stole-"

"It's not yours. It's not mine. It belongs to no one but the wind."

The shard began to glow and levitate; it flew to the three ogres, causing their shards to glow similarly. The four became one and the ogres' flesh began to gather around the shard gaining stability. A new monster was formed, much stronger than before, more fierce than before, more disgusting than before. It had four eyes, enabling it to view the four cardinal directions at once.

Shihai collapsed and the ritual ended; his body became limp as he fell to his side. Byaku rushed to his side.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"You should run," was the ignored answer.

She hurled hiraikotsu, hooking it behind trees to camaflouge it from the ogre, but with its four eyes it saw its path's end before the beginning, and easily evaded.

With a roaring punch, its fist approached intensely. Byaku blocked it with hiraikotsu, but the sheer force of the blow caused her to lose her balance. The ogre lifted its foot, preparing to crush the entire hut. Carrying him over her shoulder, she saved him from certain death. He seemed to be unconscious.

"Take him somewhere safe," she told Kiara. The firecat hesitated for a moment before leaving.

She faced the ogre bravely, listing her options of attack. The ogre punched again, but this time she was able to block the attack without losing her balance. She was even able to exert enough strength to push it away. Seizing her opportunity, she planted hiraikotsu in the ground and jumped from its highest point. Using the height's momentum, she cut through the ogre's forearm using both her katana and her hidden sword. It cried in agony, and its next attack missed as Byaku ran through the space between its legs.

She had been taught that the weak point of a large enemy were his legs. She prepared to attack, but the previously detached arm attacked her from behind, clenching her in its palm. It reconnected to the main body, and began guiding it to the mouth. She could see her reflection in more than one eye, which gave her an idea.

Maintaining her calm, she used the hidden sword to free her arms, and was able to release the seal on her kazanna. Hiraikotsu cut through the ogre's wrist to free her, but its fist quickly reformed and launched a fierce punch. She planned to block the attack with hiraikotsu, but she knew she was at a disadvantage since she was falling.

The punch completely missed as Kiara returned to fight alongside her companion, as she had done with Sango.

"I'm glad you're here," Byaku told her, "since I have an idea. Fly me to the right." She then released kazanna for a very short term. "Good, the wind's perfect now."

She then leapt from Kiara's back, holding her katana high over her head with both hands. The ogre was confused and couldn't move, as all four of its eyes saw the same attacker. Three of them were reflections, created by the manipulated wind. The real attacker easily accessed the shard, and the ogre immediately decayed and disappeared.

"Take me to him," Byaku said as Kiara snatched her from the air. When they arrived, he was not there. 


	4. Chapter 4

Conspiracy at Dawn

The next morning, Byaku decided to postpone her search for Kohaku, and instead search for Shihai. She knew it was more important to her mother to locate Kohaku's whereabouts, but there was an unsettled disturbance within her she couldn't ignore.

She began her investigation at the remnants of the elder's hut. While she was jostling through the rubble, she observed a trap door she hadn't noticed earlier. She carefully peered inside, and after she detected no signs of danger, she let herself fall down a vertical chute. It was a long fall, but before she touched the ground she raised her hand and caught Kiara's paw lessen the impact.

The secret compartment was a long hallway illuminated by torchlight, with ritual drawings meandering the walls and an extravagant carpet leading the procession. The two followed the carpet until they met a large door. Byaku could not open it. Before she made her next move, an obscure noise obstructed her thoughts.

Following the noise, she found another wing that lacked any source of light, but instead was completely dark. Straining to hear, the noise led her to a very old prison cell. Inside, was a middle-aged man, who seemed very sick, like a person who hadn't eaten in weeks. Using her own strength, she was able to rip the bars apart to create an opening so that she could rescue the man. She tried to comfort him, telling him "everything is all right now," but he was unresponsive.

The search for Shihai was temporarily postponed, as she brought the man to the local clinic. The clinic was already full with the villagers that had attacked Byaku the previous night, but one had recovered, allowing for the man to be treated.

"You look much better," she said to the recovered patient.

"I don't know what happened," he began. "All I remember is performing the ritual with everyone else. After that everything is black."

"Do you know who this man is?"

"This is... impossible! This is the elder's father, but that can't be! The elder told us he drowned in the river! We even had a funeral!"

"I see. Shihai must have imprisoned his own father to gain the position of elder, but why would he want it?"

"The only reason would be that the elder gains possession of all the shikon shards that are claimed from the invading youkai, but it is the elder's sacred duty to protect those shards from evil!"

"Sacred duties are easily abused," she stated, thinking of father. "Do you have any idea where Shihai might be?"

"There are times when no one in the village knows where he is. They say he goes for walks near the river, and then seems to vanish for short periods of time. We never questioned him. Before the rituals started, he was a most respectable elder. Please, don't hurt him. He is a fine young man."

"Don't worry, I'll find him and bring him back."

When she arrived at the river, the first thing she noticed was that it was connected to the waterfall that seemed to enjoy making fools of people. As she walked toward it, she observed that the wind was becoming more intense, and with so many mirages it would be a miracle not to become lost. She knew this would be an ideal hideout.

Using the kazanna to manipulate the wind, she was able to make her way to the waterfall, where on the ground she saw footprints leading behind. She followed them, revealing a secret cave with only one path. As she neared the end, she noticed two shadows. Peering around a corner, she tried to scope the situation.

One of the shadows belonged to Shihai; the other, she did not recognize. Shihai was giving the other a pile of shikon shards, but the other was displeased.

In a harsh tone, he said, "Four are missing. Without them, the first stage cannot be complete. What happened with the four ogres you called here last night?"

"He was defeated," Shihai responded meekly.

"Defeated? By whom?"

"Taijiya."

"Where is she?"

"She must have left by now."

"You fool! Those shards are crucial! Hurry! Summon four more ogres before nightfall, or it will be too late!"

"Yes, Tsubasa-sama."

Shihai rose slowly, and began to leave. He was looking down, at his own shadow, so he did notice when Byaku blocked his path.

"I won't let you summon them and put the village in danger," she said strongly, pointing the tip of her blade at his throat. 


	5. Chapter 5

Tsubasa

"So you are the famous taijiya," Tsubasa laughed mockingly. "You are too late to do anything or save anybody. The ritual is already begun. Now, do it boy!"

Shihai was kneeling on the ground with his eyes closed in deep concentration. Energy emanated from his body and burnt ritual markings into the ground. He then began a long ceremonious chant.

"I'll give you the shards," she offered, "so let him go."

Upon reception, he chuckled, "Too bad, even I can't stop the ritual. If it is interrupted, something terrible happen. I can't have you disturbing things here, so it looks like I will have to kill you. But I am most thankful for the shards."

He released a blast of wind from his palm, taking her by surprise and causing her to fall harmlessly to the ground like a feather. He moved quickly, seemingly using the wind to guide him rather than his feet; he moved freely, without tire.

He approached from behind but she was able to reach behind her back and block him with her hidden sword. She felt it connect with something like a blade, yet different.

"That was wind pressure," he answered, without waiting for a question. "You did well to block that attack. Right now my control of the wind is primal, but after the ritual I will be able to complete the first stage and be one step closer to gaining total mastery of the wind! I shall rule the wind!"

"Shihai, you have to stop!" she pleaded. "You already imprisoned your own father! You tried to use the villagers against their will to kill me! Don't endanger this village anymore!"

"It's useless; he can't hear you. He really is a weak boy, but he happens to be talented at wind rituals. It's lucky I found someone like him, and so easy to manipulate too."

"Then, you... he..."

At the clinic, Shihai's father had awoken, as had all the other injured villagers. After the first one who recovered explained everything he could, everyone was glad to see their elder alive and safe, and were eager to learn the truth.

"About a month ago," the elder explained, "an evil man named Tsubasa entered our village. He knew that this is the place where all the winds meet, and he planned to use this village to advance his ambition of becoming ruler of the wind, but he needed my son's talent to do so. My son refused strongly at first, but after I was sent to that dark dungeon, he was forced to follow Tsubasa's orders and seemed to lose a little bit of his strong will with each passing day. Now, we have to stop him from committing any more acts of evil, before it ruins his pure heart!"

"I don't think we need to worry," one of the villagers said suddenly. "I remember now, after the ritual, our orders were as always to retrieve the shikon shard from the youkai. But that time, he gave us an extra command, no, request, to prevent that girl from endangering herself."

"And yet," another villager added, "she saved us all from the youkai. If she went to save Shihai-san, then I'm sure everything will be all right."

"You're right," the elder accepted, "but Tsubasa is a dangerous man. They may still need our help. We must leave at once!"

Byaku felt a rage grow inside her, greater than the rage she felt even for her own father. "You used his own father as a threat," she said with a stinging voice.

"That's right," Tsubasa replied with jolly. "It was a brilliant tactic, wasn't it? Manipulating the wind, manipulating people, they really are the same. Then, shall we continue?"

He formed pieces of the wind into a thin extended wire, and began to flail it like a whip. She found that when she tried to block it, the wire curled around her defences. She was able to dodge the attacks with her quick reflexes, but found herself moving farther from her target, from an offensive position to a defensive, and because they were fighting in an enclosed area, she could now throw hiraikotsu.

Kiara charged, but the wire encircled then restrained her body. Even though Byaku cut through the wire, it reformed soon after and Kiara remained trapped.

"Wind cannot be cut," Tsubasa tingled with an obsessed passion. "Give up!"

Byaku was not shaken, and she noted that he had let down his guard. After digging through her pouch of gear, she selected a talisman charm found usally in a monk's arsenal. She wrapped it around the tip of her sword, then with all of her might she destroyed the wire. It exploded at both ends, but she directed the attack at Tsubasa, to reduce most of Kiara's damage. Before he could recover, Byaku rushed, with hiraikotsu's point aimed at his gut, and drove him mercilessly against the cave wall.

His breathing was short and heavy as he panted, "I didn't expect you to use those, but next time my powers will be complete and you won't be so lucky. I am Tsubasa! I am destined to rule the winds from this village!"

"No, you're wrong," came Shihai's purposeful voice, to Byaku's surprise and Tsubasa's worry. "No one can control the wind, the dark wind."

Shihai was from birth the wind's prodigy. He could perform even the most complicated rituals with ease. Then one day, the village of his childhood was struck by the most terrible of storms. The winds destroyed everything. Almost everyone from the village died. His mother died. His three brothers and two sisters died. One was nearing her marriage day. Shihai watched all of them die. Only he and his father survived; his father, the elder, and he, the prodigy, were given priority. At his new village, every day was spent refining his skills. No time could be spared; he didn't even have time to visit his family's graves. When Tsubasa arrived, he was powerless to protect his father, just like how he was powerless to protect his family. even with all of his skills he was powerless. He was powerless.

"The wind is a monster no man may tame," he said with fatigue. He rose, and the ritual markings disappeared. The cave began to shake and fragments of rock began to fall.

"You fool!" Tsubasa shouted angrily. He punched his face, leaving a red mark, but he made no response and fell to the floor like a broken doll. He raised his fist to hurt him again, but Byaku caught his wrist from behind. He released himself, and immediately began to nurse his poor wrist. "I'm afraid I don't have time to deal with you. Thanks to that fool's incompetence, this village is doomed. I have the shards; enjoy yourself protecting this village while I escape."

The villagers, led by the elder, had reached the elder, but their attention was averted to the darkening sky. The darkness grew from a large shadow, the shadow of a titanic ogre. It had four eyes, four arms, and four wings. The villagers, once intended to aid Shihai and Byaku, shouted: "Daiyoukai! Daiyoukai is attacking! Evacuate the village!" 


	6. Chapter 6

Daiyoukai

When Shihai regained consciousness, he was sitting on Kiara's back with his body, severely weakened from the ritual incident, being supported by Byaku riding behind him. He noticed that the cave was collapsing, and large rocks were falling dangerously. Byaku had many scratches and bruises, and he knew they were the result of her protecting him.

"Why did you save me?" he asked weakly. "I am powerless. I am useless. You put yourself in danger for me."

"I am a taijiya," she said with a combination of good will and callousness. "My mother trained me to be strong, to protect those in need. You let Tsubasa manipulate you. You put this village in danger every time you summon a youkai. I saved you, because I believe in you. From now on, be strong."

"You expect too much from others."

"You expect too little from yourself."

After they narrowly escaped from the cave's collapse, over half of the village had already been destroyed. The daiyoukai was progressing toward the location the no longer standing elder's hut, demolishing everything in its path along the way.

"A daiyoukai? I summoned that? It's impossible! There's no way you could even hope of fighting something like that! You have to run."

"There is no reason for me to run." She was actually smiling. "Being a daiyoukai means nothing to me. No matter who my enemy is, I will defeat him."

"I'm amazed you can act like this, in this kind of situation. I admire someone like you."

"There are things I admire about you too. Your beautiful face for one. Oh! Don't worry, I didn't mean anything by it."

Byaku led him to the exit (and entrance) of the village, and let him land gently on the ground. They parted with good terms, both with smiling faces: her confident smile, determined to win, his sad smile, as he watched another meet with danger while he was powerless to protect - both were beautiful smiles.

Shihai slowly neared the exit. He almost fell, but was caught by familiar hands.

"Father!" he exclaimed.

"I am so glad that you're safe," were the words overflowing from an overjoyed parent. "I've been searching for you for some time. We're finally together. We have to run."

"No! I mean, no, we can't. Byaku is still in there. She's fighting. She says she'll win... but it's a daiyoukai!"

"Byaku? The taijiya?"

"We have to save her!"

"You must trust her. There is nothing any of us can do now. We'll just get in her way. You are this village's prodigy! Your life is too important!"

"What good is it... what good is it if I am a prodigy that can't protect anyone? What is my life if I am not willing to risk it protecting others? Today, is the day I will prove what I really am. Father, I beg of you, please teach me the forbidden arts!"

The elder could see that his son was determined, and willing to take any risk. He hugged him tightly, with tears in his eyes. "I will teach you, but please be careful, my son."

Byaku sent hiraikotsu exploding from her hands, but still it was unable to pierce through the daiyoukai's hard flesh. Instead, it rebounded slightly off course but it was narrowly caught by the flying Kiara, whose movements were becoming slower.

"Kiara, what's wrong," asked Byaku, worried. "Your body hasn't healed from the explosion at the cave, has it? Don't worry. You can rest, I will fight on my own."

Kiara complained, and attempted to disobey, but her body was in extreme pain, having fought the daiyoukai up to this point.

Byaku threw hiraikotsu with even more effort. This time it planted firmly in the daiyoukai's chest, but was unable to make a deep wound. She jumped from a rooftop and landed on the imbedded hiraikotsu, then jumped again to match the daiyoukai's head. She threw a pocket of poison into its mouth, then landed safely on its back. She then attacked with her katana, which had poison painted on its point. She drove it into the daiyoukai's back. The poison seemed to be completely ineffective.

Lumps of the daiyoukai's flesh began to bubble and form disgusting creatures. Using her katana, she moved swiftly to cut through the new threat. As soon as she had defeated one, another formed from directly behind her, but she was able to spin and slice through it with her hidden sword. The creatures were relatively weak, but the continuous assault was slowly tiring her body.

Shihai was beginning to lose hope as he walked with one arm using the side of a building for support. With every step his fatigue seemed to worsen with double effect, and the battle scene seemed to become farther and farther away. He stopped to rest, but collapsed instead. The shadow of a fierce, growling creature approached his unmoving body.

The daiyoukai unleashed its massive wings, and took flight, moving incredibly fast. Byaku lost her balance and began to plummet toward the ground. She quickly released the seal on her kazanna, and aimed her hand at the daiyoukai's chest. The massive body wasn't affected at all by the vacuum, but hiraikotsu escaped and drove into the side of a building. Byaku almost slipped as she grabbed onto hiraikotsu to break her fall.

She climbed to the rooftop of the building and rose to fight again, but by now, she was sweating and breathing stressfully. Instead of attacking, she was forced to desperately dodge as the daiyoukai's fist destroyed the building. The force of the blow itself caused her to fall heavily on the ground. The pain only made her more determined than before, and she continued fighting, barely dodging the attacks.

Unnoticed, Shihai arrived riding on Kiara's back. With a wakizashi, he slit his wrist, then immediately fell into a trance. Ritual markings surrounded him, but this time the markings were formed by his blood. The markings rose into the air and formed a helix. From within, a black angel with one wing missing appeared.

"So it was a failure, huh?" he coughed painfully. "In the end, I am still powerless." The angel gazed at him, and he noticed that it had a look in its eye that he recognized. "You still want to fight, even though you're incomplete? Thank you."

Byaku evaded another attack, but as she landed, her legs went limb and she nearly fell. She didn't think she would be able to avoid the next attack. Her eyes were beginning to hurt, and her vision became blurry. She might even have been hallucinating. She saw a black angel, with only one wing, divert the attack. It was bleeding from its left leg, then it disappeared.

She wasn't sure if what happened was real or not, but she was able to dodge the next attack. She crawled and hid behind piles of rocks, continuing to dodge the attacks even though there didn't appear to any hope. Finally, she couldn't move, and the final blow was prepared, but the daiyoukai suddenly squirmed, wreathing in pain. It gasped, as if short for air, and descended slowly. Finally, with one last cry, all of its life force left it.

"I thought that if I got you to move around, eventually the poison would spread through your big ugly body," she laughed faintly.

Kiara and Shihai arrived. "I don't believe it," he cried happily. "You really beat a daiyoukai. You really did it. You really are amazing."

The next day, the villagers were busy rebuilding their homes. Shihai and his father were no exception, as they worked diligently to replace the broken hut.

"I am going to resume my role as elder," said Shihai's father, "so you really are free to do whatever you wish. I'm sorry. I forced you to train everyday, even though you didn't want to. You should be free."

"There is actually something I want to do," Shihai happily told his father, "though I probably won't find freedom if I'm with her. She's quite overpowering."

When Shihai finally reached the outskirts of the village, Byaku was already waiting. "You're slow," she said both humourously and mockingly.

"I'm sorry," he apologized obediently, "but I was stocking up on rations as promised. There's enough for both of us."

"Do you really want to come? You're probably too weak. I heard that this Kagura lady is really dangerous."

He thought jokingly to himself: "I knew traveling with her would be a bad idea."

While they mounting Kiara, Shihai asked, "I was wondering... why didn't you leave after you got the shards?"

"Well... that's... I forgot where the next village was."

"It's directly south of here."

"Wasn't it north?"

"Yes, it was." For that, he received a face sinister enough to turn a Medusa to stone.

With a bright smile, he said, "If you like, I can show you the way. I'm on my way there right now as it is."

"Then, if that is the case, I will gladly accept your company."

"When I am with her," he thought to himself, "I feel as though I no longer have to fear the wind. Even though everyone said I was a prodigy, I was always afraid whenever I performed a ritual. But now, what is this feeling? When I am with her, I don't fear the wind. I am not powerless." 


	7. Chapter 7

The Dancing Dead

When the two riding on Kiara arrived at the north village, they immediately found it strange that the streets were quiet and desolate. There was an eerie silence that caused one to take each step with caution, believing one was in a deadly predicament though no potential harm could be detected.

Kiara began to growl, sensing a danger very close by; the others could sense it too, and clasped the hilts of their swords. The doors of the buildings seemed to open on their own, though there was no wind. Staggering, many men and women limped onto the streets, hobbling toward the intruders with clumsily held weapons.

"These people are dead," Byaku realized, to her disgust.

"This is also one of Kagura's tricks," Shihai informed her. "She has the ability of the Corpse Dance. It causes dead bodies to rise again and act according to her will."

"Why didn't you warn me about this earlier?"

"I'm sorry. I seem to have just remembered." He wasn't sure where he had learned of this information from, but he was absolutely sure that it was correct. He had faint memories, but he chose not to expound.

When the corpses attacked, neither Byaku nor Kiara had any problems, but Shihai quickly found himself surrounded and unable to defend. Seeing this, Byaku decided to work harder, but she held back because she did not want to dishonour a human corpse. With magnificent agility, reflexes, and flexibility, she was able to quickly subdue the corpses without using her weapons; however, the corpses rose again.

"The corpses do not feel pain," Shihai added, "they will continue fighting as long as they are commanded to do so."

"And why didn't you warn me about this earlier?" Byaku asked, annoyed.

They had no choice but to run. Using a smoke bomb, they were able to stow themselves away in a local restaurant and bar the door to stop their attackers from entering, temporarily. They decided to revitalize themselves with drinks from the pantry.

Shihai suddenly felt an odd feeling overcome him. He could feel traces of wind in the air, vaguely, but they were there. The source of the wind was...

"It's that way," he said suddenly, "the one commanding the wind."

Byaku thought for a moment but didn't question him. They mounted Kiara and burst through the roof of the building, and made their way to where he had alluded to earlier.

Even in the air, the corpses were able to attack them, as though there were a burst of wind beneath their wingless bodies. Byaku blocked them with hiraikotsu and sent them back to the earth. The trail of wind led Shihai to a castle, where there were many hallways and rooms. Concentrating with more focus, he was able to determine the source and continued walking without the aid of his eyes, as the others followed.

In the throne room, Kagura suddenly snapped her fan shut.

"What's wrong?" Kohaku asked.

"Someone found us," she answered. "I didn't expect it to be this fast. What are you going to do, find another hideout?"

"No, we'll meet whoever comes. I don't think it's Tsubasa since my shard isn't reacting."

"It could still be someone dangerous, are you really sure you just want to live it like this? We're close. As soon as we find Kanna we'll be able to stop Tsubasa and Naraku."

"It's not like we have any clues on Kanna; she's nihility. Let's wait. I want to see this one. I have a strange feeling. I want to stay."

"Whatever you say, but I think you're making the wrong choice."

"It stopped," Shihai said suddenly, opening his eyes suddenly and standing still suddenly.

"What stopped?" Byaku asked.

"I, don't know where to go anymore."

"Useless."

"Wait it, started again!"

As he said that, a band of dead soldiers attacked them. As usual, Byaku and Kiara defeated them effortlessly, while he couldn't even beat one. He was rescued by Byaku again, who looked annoyed. When they were all defeated, the wind disappeared, but when they rose a second time, he sensed the second wind.

"I can only follow the wind when the corpses are attacking," he realized. "So you'll have to stall them while I go on ahead."

"Will you be fine on your own?" Byaku asked seriously. "Take Kiara with you."

"What about you?"

"These corpses are nothing."

Shihai agreed and rode on Kiara, giving her directions, while Byaku fought the soldiers on her own. She wanted to deal with them as quick as possible so she could catch up and make sure Kiara, and Shihai, were all right.

"They got here quicker than expected. It must be because of her," Kagura said, recognizing Kiara upon her entrance.

Kohaku recognized her too, and said her name in a fainting voice before turning and running with a swift and clumsy pace. Kiara jetted after him, leaving Shihai almost no time to dismount. But after he did dismount, he realized that Kiara had left without him, and he was on his own, and that made him a little nervous.

"What's wrong, you don't look so good," Kagura mocked. "Maybe Kohaku was right; it was a good idea to wait because maybe I can have some fun with you."

"So you're Kagura," he shouted, gaining sudden determination.

"What? You actually want to fight me? Do you even have any fighting experience?"

"Only once, and I didn't actually fight. But you don't fight either; I heard you control the wind. I have no intention of losing to you!

No one can control the wind. The wind is a monster no one can tame. Yet this lady claims to command that which cannot be commanded. Only to this person, I must not lose!" - With those thoughts he rushed recklessly into his first real battle. 


	8. Chapter 8

His First Battle

He attacked with his wakazashi but missed completely, and Kagura quickly leapt into the air and landed on a magical feather, safely positioning herself high in the air where he could deal her no damage.

She enjoyed herself as she attacked with wind blades, expecting it to be an easy victory, but all of her attacks were missing. He found himself able to dodge every attack with some sort of intuition, even though the prospect of the battle filled him with trepidation.

He still couldn't reach her, so he threw his only weapon hoping it would hit but she batted it away with her hand, without even having to use her wind. For some reason, he felt ashamed and insulted as it clanged far away, on the other side of the room.

He tried to run toward it, but a wall of wind appeared before him and blocked his path. He narrowly managed to avoid the wall crushing him in its fall. Now he was in a bit of a predicament: he could not reach his only weapon and without his only weapon he could not attack his enemy, who was still floating out of harm's way, laughing and enjoying the moment. On the plus side, his abilities allowed him to dodge her wind-based attacked with ease, causing her to become impatient and annoyed.

"You seem to be doing all right so far," she acknowledged, "but how about this: Fuujin no Mai?"

Wind blades stronger and faster than before targeted him. He was unable to dodge all of them, and his left leg was cut. The wound aggravated him more than she expected, even for one with a naturally weak body. She attacked again, but this time it was a Ryuujin no Mai, that raised him to her eye level so she could sneer at his helpless face, and watch him fall painfully to the ground.

Byaku had defeated half of the soldiers. She estimated that she would have 15 seconds at most to defeat the other half before the first half resurrected, and thus wanted to finish the job in 10 seconds even though it had taken her 18 with the first batch.

She couldn't scrape away the feeling that Shihai was in trouble.

Shihai was in pain. He was bleeding. He could barely stand. He was still going to fight. "No one can control the wind," he said in a quiet, forceful tone.

"You're still going on about that?" Kagura laughed. "Fuujin no mai!"

He dodged it. He was moving quicker than before. He began to run in a seemingly random direction. She tried another Fuujin no Mai. He dodged again. The attacked had lifted the wakazashi into the air, but she didn't notice. A little agitated, she launched a Ryuujin no Mai, but he was expecting and waiting for it. With perfect timing, he used the wind to return his weapon to him, and to carry him into the air into a perfect position to attack her.

She couldn't believe it: someone so weak had so easily seen through both of her attacks.

He attacked, but luckily, he was indeed weak. He managed to cut her arm, but no major damage was done. He seemed to lose any spirit he once had as the wind disappeared and he began to fall. His plan to ascend was perfect, but he hadn't thought about how to descend. She did the planning for him by hitting him with a barrage of wind blades. When he landed, he was in excruciating pain, with wounds covering most of his body.

She looked at the boy for a moment, thinking about something, before she left to rejoin Kohaku. She hadn't received a wound in a long time, and she wouldn't be able to use that hand to control her fan presently.

Byaku had less than a second to finish the last 12 soldiers. Even though she was probably correct when she had estimated 15 seconds, she still wanted to finish it in 10. It didn't look like she would make it, but the soldiers suddenly dropped dead. She felt somewhat cheated.

She hurried onward, following a trail of liquid from one of the refreshments from the restaurant earlier that day.

She quickly and calmly applied the best medical treatment she could. As a taijiya, she was prepared for these situations.

While he was being treated, he told her, "Kiara went after Kohaku. You should go."

Byaku finished administering his treatment before leaving.

She caught up to Kiara first, and then together they located Kohaku. Kiara was growling more fiercely than ever before. Byaku prepared to face the one her mother had sent her to kill. She did not expect him to be a young boy, but that didn't change anything. She wanted to kill him, for her mother.

But she lost a bit of her resolve, when he uttered, "ane-ue..." 


	9. Chapter 9

The One She Was Sent to Kill

She had no idea why he had called her "sister," but she wanted to know the reason. Initially she was planning on killing him instantly with her kazanna, and then everything would be all over... what would she do after? She didn't know, but it didn't matter because she was sent by her mother. Now, however, she felt different, all because of one word.

After the immediate shock, he realized disappointedly that she was not his sister, just someone that looked almost exactly the same. When he saw her kazanna, he guessed she was the child of Miroku and his sister, and he was happy for her. He turned and began to run away again.

When she saw him run, her battle instincts re-emerged as she threw hiraikotsu around his body, not hurting him but only to trap him. He turned and she saw his face, an innocent face. He didn't look old, but matured, like someone who had suffered traumatizing experience. She was beginning to doubt more and more her mother's request. This was only a boy, and he was a taijiya. He had a similar uniform; he carried the standard gear, a katana, and a sickle and chain.

"Who are you," she demanded, "and why does my mother want me to kill you?"

"Want, to kill me?" he said with restrained regret. "That's only natural, I suppose."

"My mother told me nothing, except that I had to kill you no matter what. I was expecting you to be some sort of monster, but..."

"I am a monster. I have sinned, and I cannot be forgiven, but there are things that I must do, that only I can do. Until then, I cannot see sister's face again. But I no longer have to hide from her, since Naraku knows my intentions clearly now."

"Naraku?"

"Tell her I'm sorry, and to wait for me. After I'm done, I'll definitely return to apologize to her, and to father, and to everyone I killed. I want to go the graves with her, and pray, but I can't right now, not yet. I don't have the courage to face her yet; I don't deserve to face her yet."

Kagura arrived, floating on her feather. "Hey, Kohaku," she said impatiently, "the battle from earlier is causing the castle to collapse. We have to get out of here."

"Go without me. I'll catch up."

"Are you crazy? Why would you-"

"Don't interfere. I have to deal with this."

"Don't expect me to bail you out if you get into trouble."

After she left, he said truthfully, "Countless people have died because of me. I am the one responsible for the spider incident where all but two survived. Because of me, your mother suffered."

She thought about his crimes. She had heard of entire castles or villages suddenly dying, all by the work of one man. She had heard of the spider incident, and she would not forgive anyone that made her mother suffer.

"Kiara, escape with Shihai," she ordered, but the firecat didn't want to.

"Kiara, leave," Kohaku said in a kind voice, and she did.

Byaku attacked first by using a smoke bomb, then throwing hiraikotsu through the haze; however, he was able to dodge with his trained ears. He ran quickly and attacked before the boomerang returned, trying to force her into a position where she would be unable to retrieve her main weapon.

Although he had not aged in the past 14 years, he had grown much stronger, through extensive exercise and experience.

She, however, had also trained vigorously over the years, and her close range combat skills were excellent. She deflected his blows with her katana, waiting for just the right moment to attack. She was able to force him into hirakotsu's path, and as he dodged she moved in to gather her weapon.

She threw it again, forcing him to jump into the air. It circled and threatened to hit him from behind, as he wouldn't be able to dodge in the air; however, he used his chain to trap the boomerang and drop it heavily to the ground. During that moment, he had opened his guard and she seized the opportunity to loosen his grip on his chain and sickle, his main weapon.

Both decided to use their katana, and they rushed at each other, gripping their hilts tightly. Both blades vibrated, then flew from their hands, causing them to pass each other with neither receiving a wound. In unison, they both pressed their right foot heavily on the ground to reverse their momentum, then spun, unleashing a hidden sword from their right arm. They met, and as they clashed those blades too, vibrated, then shattered.

They reverted to their hand-to-hand combat skills, focusing more on their offence than defence. The castle was beginning to shake more, and large pieces of stone were rumbling, but neither warrior wished to stop the intensive battle. As the castle shook, the warriors would lose their balance, and soon both had suffered many bruises and were beginning to tire. She was able to deal a fairly significant blow, but consequentially she had positioned herself in the direct path of a falling pillar. He retaliated with a heavy kick, and she couldn't tell if he was trying to harm her or save her from the pillar.

Another pillar fell and she was forced to roll under it to escape, and he used the opportunity to reclaim his katana. She managed to avoid the first swing, but she knew she was at a disadvantage: behind her was a hall and behind him lay her katana as well as hiraikotsu, still connected to the chain.

She jumped from one of the fallen pillars to gain height and readied to use kazanna to summon hirakotsu, but he suddenly called at her to wait.

"If you use kazanna," he shouted, "you risk shortening your lifespan!"

"How did you know that," she asked, suspiciously.

"Here." He threw her his katana then reached behind him to use hers.

She wondered why he would pull such a manoeuvre, but she couldn't worry about that because the battle was still not over. She threw three talisman charms, and while he slashed through them, she jumped behind him, position herself between her enemy and the fallen weapons.

He attacked with unrelenting haste, not giving her an opportunity to claim one of the weapons located just behind her, and he was able to free the katana from her hands. Thinking quickly, she placed her foot atop of the chain and slid it forward, causing him to trip over hirakotsu. She then picked up the chain, and latched it onto the katana he was holding, allowing her to pull it from his hands and reclaim her own hilt.

She pulled on the chain again, causing him to lose balance and fall on his back. She quickly leapt into the air, and used her weight to restrict his movement while she poised the katana to kill him. He was the one she was sent to kill, the one her mother had sent her to kill, the one she was sent to kill, but why couldn't she kill him?

It was a scene too familiar for him, as he remembered his sister in a similar situation, and her teary face.

The castle collapsed, and both were buried in rubble.

He woke up first, as a nice breeze passed his body. "Thank you, Kagura," he said peacefully.

"I almost didn't make it myself," she sighed. "This is what I get for babysitting you."

He laughed, then carried the still unaware Byaku to where Kiara was waiting with an unresponsive Shihai on her back. He let her down as gently as he could. He petted Kiara, and gave her a sad smile, then departed, returning to Kagura's feather and to the distant sky.

Later that evening, Byaku and Shihai awoke. "I'm going to the taijiya village," she said. "I have some questions to ask my mother." 


	10. Chapter 10

A Peaceful Setting

The Taijiya Village - where Byaku was born, where she was raised, where she was trained, where she once lived with her mother, and father - it hadn't changed at all.

It was a battle-oriented village: all the residents, both men and women, were taijiya, demon exterminators, who were hired by clients to protect villages and fight the monsters others spent their days fearing. It was a battle-oriented village, but she found it peaceful, a place where she could live comfortably.

She had left the village, only the day after she received her most important mission from her mother. She had excelled at her training, and became a certified taijiya very young. She had been travelling for a few years already, with Kiara as her only companion, and had found only one lead on Kohaku. She never thought she would return to her peaceful home, without killing the one she was sent to kill, as she had promised her mother, but she was here, here at her home.

She was greeted excitedly by the others, who were eager to hear of her travels. Some asked who the boy sitting on Kiara was. She tried to avoid their questions, looking through the crowd for the one she wanted to speak to most.

"Is my mother here?" she asked, worriedly.

"Sango-sama is currently on a mission," one of them informed her." She should be home soon. Until then, why don't you rest? Your boyfriend isn't looking well. You want him at your best before you introduce him to your mother or she might not approve. No wonder why you came back, right?"

"He's not my boyfriend!" She was blushing profusely. She was lucky as he had already fallen asleep on Kiara's back. The others were right; he was looking ill and could use proper treatment and a long rest. She wasn't tired, but she decided to rest as well.

It was late in the night, when Shihai opened his eyelids and saw groggily a beautiful woman tending him. She had bandaged his wounds and was wetting a cloth to lay on his forehead. She had a gentle, calming touch. It was impossible to tell that the same hands were capable of slaying demons, and that the same hands had once held weapons and were once stained with bloodshed.

"Byaku?" he said with a weak voice. She laughed freely. When his vision started to clear, he saw that it was a woman that looked almost exactly like her, but was taller and her uniform was slightly varied. She too, used hiraikotsu, he noticed, but hers was for more worn.

"You are Sango-chan," he realized softly. "Byaku hates talking with me, but she loves talking about you. She's a good person, so I believe all the things she says about you. I don't know a lot about what's going on, but I wanted to ask you a favour, if you could give up on Kohaku."

"I treated your wounds," she said carefully. "You'll be fine by morning. Until then, don't move. I noticed a strange cut on your left leg; it looks suspicious."

"It's nothing. Don't tell her... I don't want her to worry."

"I think she would want to know." But she didn't press the matter any further.

Shut she the door quietly, as he had fallen asleep again. She changed into the clothes she wore when wasn't fighting. It had been a long time since she had worn them, but her daughter preferred them. She met her daughter, outdoors gazing calmly at the moon. They were the only two awake.

"Still awake? I'm sorry I took so long," she said casually.

"It's all right," she replied naturally. "I'm fine. But, why do you still have to fight so much? You're exhausting your body, and exposing yourself to so much poison is making you sick. You still cough every now and then, don't you. I'm worried."

"What are you suggesting? Why should a cute little daughter worry about her mother?" Sango grabbed her daughter's hair from behind and began to punish her, demonically.

"I'm sorry! You're young! You're strong! You're pretty!"

"That's much better."

"You're intelligent! You're sexy! You're heavenly! You smell nice! You have lustrous hair! Your eyes sparkle!"

"That's quite enough now."

"Men faint when they gaze upon your beauty! Women faint when they gaze upon your beauty! Deities faint when they gaze upon your beauty! I faint when I gaze upon your beauty!" She faints, with overdramatic stagecraft.

"That's quite enough now."

"You're my role-model! You're my idol! I have a wooden statue replication that I spent years of meticulous craftsmanship and painting, skipping meals - ah, you're cooking is wonderful! - and I worship that statue every morning, although my skills could never to dare to proclaim to replicate your unrivalled attractiveness!"

"Really, that's quite enough now (though I did enjoy it)."

"I missed you, mother."

"I did too."

They spent the quiet, peaceful night together, talking about everything from adventures to gossip to stories to useless pieces of information until they had caught up on twice the amount of time that they were apart for, and then they talked about boys.

While they resided near a hearth for warmth, as Byaku was taking care of her weapons, Sango, taking care of Kiara, began, "So... I noticed you brought a boy home."

Byaku was so surprised that she began to juggle her weapons dangerously before letting them drop and clatter loudly on the floor. She answered, very nervously, "He's just an acquaintance."

"He's very handsome, and charming."

"I said he's just an acquaintance. He's good with Kiara, that's all. We just happened to meet. I keep telling him to go away but he just following me."

"That's because you're just so enchanting. I wonder where you learned to snare the boys like that, so professionally."

"Just an acquaintance."

"I was in his room. He thought it was you. He must have been disappointed. Did you two have a special arrangement? How did I let such a pure young virgin mind become tainted so? I have failed as a mother! But I do believe you, if you say he's just an acquaintance."

"He's... a little more."

"Take good care of him."

"I will."

Later, they were silent, as they prayed in front of Miroku's grave. It was a large depression, with a priest's staff driven into its centre. The staff's rings, played gently music as a soft breeze passed through the night air.

Despite everything they had talked about, neither had approached Kohaku.

"I met him, Kohaku." Byaku broke the silence, still praying with her eyes closed. "I didn't kill him. Sorry."

"I see. How is he?"

"He's young. He looks normal. He's very talented, but he has a blank expression that looks like someone who doesn't mind dying."

"It seems we find that kind of face the hardest to kill."

"Mother, why must I kill him? He looks so... innocent."

She paused for a suspended moment before answering. "He has committed too many sins. He can't be forgiven anymore. That's all it is."

"He called you sister."

"He's lying. We're not related. You don't have to hold back against someone like him."

"He said he wanted to visit the graves with you."

"He's lying. He has no remorse. He's trying to trick you."

"He wears the same uniform as us."

"He stole it. That's another one of his sins, stealing. The only thing you have to worry about is how to kill him."

"Yes, I'm sorry. Next time I won't fail. If I kill him, I think I want to come back here, and live with you. Then you won't have to fight so much. I could use the kazanna and-"

"You're father wouldn't want you to be using it too much." Father, the moment she heard that word she abruptly ceased her prayers and left. Sango prayed a little longer before following. "We should talk," she started seriously, but her daughter wouldn't listen, and seemed frantic. Shihai was missing.

He was walking, with a still greatly fatigued body, toward a man that could not be seen clearly in the dark cover of the night. "The wind is calling me," he moaned softly as he slumbered onward, up a steep hill, with pained legs and red strained eyes. The peaceful night was ending, and its moon was sadly setting. 


	11. Chapter 11

A Man Out of Shadows

They rode on Kiara's back, with Byaku sitting in front, scanning from the sky with only starlight to guide their search for the missing Shihai. They found nothing strange; everything around them still showed signs of a peaceful moonlight setting.

"About your father," Sango began. She knew her daughter was ignoring her, but she continued anyway. "I know you heard stories about him, about his scandals, but he really was a good man. The day he died - it was before you were born, so all you heard were other peoples' thoughts and feelings. I want to tell you clearly what happened."

"He promised you," she said absently, "didn't he? When you married, you were to have a fine life, filled with peace and happiness, but you're still fighting. It's his fault."

"I admit that he wasn't the most trustworthy when he was with the ladies, but in the crucial times he always supported me. There were painful times in my life, I don't ever regret the days I spent with him. Now I have you and-"

Before she could speak any further, they noticed a swarm of youkai charging at them. It was strange to see a large number of youkai attack in together, but they didn't have time to think about that as their primary concern was defeating them.

Two experts in the field of slaying demons and a fierce cat, never afraid of a battle, were able to quickly eliminate their opponents; however, even more seemed to be coming. A horrible wind struck, and Byaku found it impossible to effectively use her boomerang. Sango, however, seemed to see something in her eye that Byaku did not, and timing the moment perfectly, she threw hiraikotsu with all of her strength, weaving its wind through the conflicting wind patterns to successfully slay the numerous intended targets.

The immediate threat had vanished, but more groups of youkai could be seen massing in the distance. Kiara flew them directly to the source, and as they loomed closer the storm became harsher. Eventually, the source, of both the wind and the monsters, was found.

Byaku had realized that there was a high probability of a situation like this arising, and had tried to prepare herself, but there really wasn't anything for her to do. She had expected, but was still shocked to see Shihai performing another ritual. This time, he seemed to be suffering from more pain and fatigue than the others, at least any of the one she had seen, and the most logical reasoning was the vast amount of various types of demons he had summoned.

"Shihai really isn't a bad guy," she found herself defending. "There must be something in the shadows we are not yet aware of."

"I know," her mother said softly. "We'll save him. Keep your faith."

Byaku knew that by interrupting the ceremony she risked summoning another daiyoukai, but fortunately, or unfortunately, she didn't have to worry about that as the ritual was complete. He immediately collapsed, but she was at his side immediately.

From the shadows, a familiar face, to Sango, emerged. He laughed, "How good it is to see you again, Sango, and a pleasure to meet you, Byaku."

"How is it," Sango demanded, thought she already knew and was simply somehow hoping to deny it, "that you're still alive."

"How naive. Did you really think you could destroy me that easily? If you had followed Kikyo's orders, and let her purify the shikon no tama upon my completion, there is no doubt that I wouldn't have survived; however, you just weren't willing to use Kohaku's shard against me. After Kohaku's shard was the only missing piece, it was nothing more than a lucky shot from that girl. Her arrow destroyed the fused shards and spread them once again across the earth, temporarily destroying my body, but because they were not purified, traces of my evil remained intact. Now, enough shards have been gathered for me to stand like this. Soon, I will claim the rest of the missing shards and achieve my true power."

Furiously, Sango hurled hiraikotsu and shredded him to pieces, but she knew it was only a puppet. Though there was no body, his voice continued to resonate loudly in the quiet night air: "You know better than to waste your energy on mere puppets. I think you know where my real body is."

Sango's expression went blank when she realized what he meant.

"Mother, what's wrong?" Byaku asked frantically.

It happened too quickly. A new puppet emerged from the shadows, and gathering the fallen Shihai in his arms, Naraku sped away into the distance.

"Follow him. Kiara."

It was one of the scarce moments in her life that Byaku heard her mother demonstrate a strict and commanding voice. This wasn't the same as always. This was an order. More important than Kohaku, was what she sensed. Before she could dispute, Kiara had lifted her from her feet and was already chasing. She tried to order her to stop, but her mother's orders overrode her own. All she could do was focus on the puppet, and believe that her mother knew what she was doing.

Kiara's quick speed eventually found the enemy. Using hiraikotsu, Byaku blocked Naraku's escape path, and forces him to halt his retreat. After laying down Shihai gently, he laughed evilly, telling her that a battle between them was inevitable.

The two split up and charged separately. Byaku attacked first with her katana, forcing Naraku to dodge and step away from Shihai. Kiara tried to gather him, but a piece of flesh branched from Naraku, pushing the firecat aside.

Naraku floated into the air, as many branches extended from within his baboon skin coat. She blocked them with the width of her hiraikotsu, but a few branches curved around her guard and pushed her away.

This time, she threw hiraikotsu, slicing the branches off. After catching her weapon, she went for the source but the branches that she had cut free reformed into a piece of flash, surrounding her and entrapping her to the ground.

She decided rashly to use kazanna, but Naraku had anticipated that, as he released a hive of poisonous bees. She had been warned of these insects and their deadly poison. Her strongest weapon was sealed for now.

Kiara tried to rescue her, but was hit directly on her side by a series of branch attacks. She escaped instead using her hidden sword and hopped on Kiara's back. In the air, they were able to destroy many of the bees, but there were simply too many. They went for the main body but with all those branches protecting the puppet's life source, it was impossible to get near.

"Kukukuku," he laughed. "It will be a glorious day, when I am rid of my two greatest enemies."

"What do you mean?" she asked, annoyed.

"By now, your mother will have reached the village. It is being attacked by all of the youkai your friend has summoned. Do you think she can contend with all of them, on top of my true body, which is much stronger than my puppets. It was a long run; I hope she isn't too tired, or that she didn't aggravate her sickness. All of you were doomed from the beginning."

"Kazanna!" She didn't hesitate at all, as she absorbed all of the bees, with their poison as well; however, she was forced to stop when he cowardly hid himself behind Shihai.

"I must admit, that was quite brave of you, to absorb them, but that too was part of my calculations. I wonder if you can still fight me having consumed all that poison? You have sealed your defeat. I will take the boy. His abilities will call forth my resurrection.

I see the poison is already taking effect. It's marvelous, isn't it? Every part of your body must be paining; you're finding it hard to breathe. I recall that your father found it quite impeding. Suffer, in the last moments of your life."

She glared at him, as she breathed painfully, lived painfully, gripping her left arm tightly. She wondered, considered, if this was the pain her father had felt. She wondered, worried, if her mother was all right. She wondered, was not sure, if she could win. She wondered many things. 


	12. Chapter 12

The Tempests' Fire

Sango indeed was tired by the time she arrived at the village. She looked at her village, her home, destroyed by attacking demons, engulfed in flames. They never had a chance; the attack had come during the night and was as sleek as the calmest wind. It was too late to save anyone.

She held back her tears as she rushed into the burning village. Using hiraikotsu to shield herself from the fire, she made her way to the largest building. Forcing her way inside, she found the shrine, where all the shikon shards the village had gathered were collected. The shrine was meant to purify the shards, but only a miko could truly cleanse them from evil. Right now, as rampant flames threatened to destroy it, the shrine looked more like the Devil's work than a holy place.

She entered the shrine, hoping to safeguard the shards, but she felt an evil presence behind her as Naraku appeared at the doorway. It was Naraku, not in his baboon skin, but in his true form.

"You must be tired," he laughed. "Why don't you rest a while?"

"Sorry, I don't have time to chat," she said seriously, ready to use any one of her weapons if he made even the slightest move.

"The fire is already burning; the wind will spread the flames. The tempest of the heart is irrepressible; evil deeds are sought by evil hands. All of this is because of that boy, but you will still forgive him? Is it for your daughter? Will you trust a man so foolishly, like you did that priest?

You knew you could not save this village, and yet you came here. You must have known that this will all end the same as it did last time. It is no different. The youkai are attracted to the shards; all beings seek power. They will converge here and become a part of my strength. Your village will be the consequence. Nostalgic, isn't it?

Now then, you walked right into my trap. This shall be finished shortly." A piece of his flesh, already concealed within the shrine, had gathered the shards and began slugging its way to the main body.

"No, I'm not the one that walked into a trap."

"So you intend to fight me here."

He released his evil, poison fumes, but she ran straight through it without regard. He dodged hiraikotsu, but he wasn't her actual target. The boomerang sliced through parts of the ceiling causing flaming pieces of wood to fall on him and incinerate parts of his flesh.

The slug thing continued its approach.

Angrily he attacked her with branches. She easily cut them with her katana, and when the pieces formed behind her she was ready and used her hidden sword to slice them without having to turn around.

The little pieces of flesh began to form together again, but she used his own inferno against him, by heating her blade and sizzling the pieces of flesh into nothingness. She had no intention of allowing him to continue reforming himself.

He realized what she was doing, and exited the shrine. She followed him, ignoring the slug thing that was slowly leaving the burning shrine, and was still carrying the shards.

Some of the youkai, that were still attacking the village, were called upon by Naraku to become a part of his body allowing him to regain some of his flesh; however during that time he was unguarded, and Sango knew it.

She lit hiraikotsu on fire, allowing the flames to cover the weapon and burn her hands. "I'm sorry, but bear with me for this," she whispered to it as she let it fly from her hands. It hacked through Naraku, burning him at the same time. The weapon fell to the ground uselessly, with pieces of it already burnt off and much of the main surface a crisp black.

All of him had disappeared, was the hope, but somehow, he still rebuilt his body, laughing as evilly as ever.

"You are doing rather well," he chuckled. "It seems you've found a competent method of dealing with me; however, no matter what you do, it is useless. Shall I tell you the reason?"

"I already know," she refused fiercely. "I came here already knowing. I know that you are just another puppet. You thought you could trick me to coming here, by making me believe your real body was here, but I didn't come here to kill you. I will never forgive you for what you did to my friends, Miroku and Kohaku, but I know now how worthless revenge is. Your dark existence will be purged one day from this world; even if I am not the one to cause it, it will still be just."

"Then what did you come here for?"

"I know the key to your power is the shards. You don't have a real body at all. The one currently giving you this form is Shihai."

"If you know that, then you must realize how futile it is. He is within my grasp. Your daughter will not rescue him, because she cannot defeat me. Even if she does, she cannot forgive him for what he has done, and most of all, what is about to happen."

"I know my daughter. I am not worried about her."

"Then, you should at least be worried about yourself. I shall praise you then, that you were correct in knowing each of my puppets is connected to a shard." The slug thing was gone, replaced by countless puppets, one per shard. "You gathered most of these shards here, and now they will be your downfall. You can't possibly hope to defeat all of my puppets."

"I will fight."

"Very well, as you wish. Then, I wish you best of luck."

Without hiraikotsu, she was forced to fight using her hidden sword and her katana in other hand. She hacked the puppets, slashing them into pieces, but they would gather again every time thanks to the power of the shards.

Placing the hilt of her katana in her mouth, she dug through her pouch of battle gear and chose a bubbling liquid. She coated both of her weapons it, and then continued attacking the puppets. This time, the puppets melted, as though they were struck by acid. Her weapons too melted, from the acidic substance. Not only her weapons suffered, but also her hands holding the hilt, her arm connected to the hidden sword, and eventually the substance spread and melted through pieces of her uniform and pieces of her skin. Old wounds opened - that could not be closed without stitches - and the substance seeped underneath her skin.

She still fought, using her fists and legs with all of her strength. She had poured the liquid onto her hands, and as she dug her fist into last next puppet, it melted, leaving only steam.

Naraku's voice resonated in the air: "All of your actions are futile! What you hope to accomplish is impossible!"

The shards formed into a single lump, almost half the size of the original. A single puppet formed and began attacking her with its branches. She ran, and jumped into one of the buildings for cover. She knew she couldn't last much longer, but she was still determined. Branches extended from the puppet and burst through the building walls, impaling her through one of her shoulders and one of her legs.

"Still not giving up?" his dark voice sounded through the dark air of the cold night.

Somehow, she found the strength to speak: "I have no weapons; I have no allies; I have absolutely no hopes for this battle, but I have a daughter." 


	13. Chapter 13

The Tempests' Fire (Part 2)

Byaku was struggling with trying to both cope with Naraku and ignore the pain of the poison. Every time she tried to use kazanna, he would cowardly shield himself behind Shihai, who still hadn't awaken. She was forced to fight close range combat, and did have some success, but she was unable to deal permanent damage and the longer the battle continued, the worse it became for her.

"I'm surprised your body is so durable," he mocked, "however; it is only a matter of time before it gives in. Even if your heart and mind tell you to keep fighting, the body has a limit.

She ignored him and hurled hiraikotsu, but the attack took a lot of strength from her and it missed, wobbling harmlessly aside. She was swept aside by branches, and this time she found herself suffering to simply stand again. It was as though his previous words had affected her; realizing the truth had caused her to believe it and now the poison was more unbearable than ever.

Now Kiara fought alone, trying to break through the barrier of branches. She clawed and chewed viciously, but she was receiving more damage than she was dealing as each successful attack caused an injection of Naraku's shouki, his poisonous evil energy.

He aimed the next series of branches at Byaku, but Kiara took the hit and taking the initiative, lifted carried her into the air. The firecat tried dodging the branches from the air, but the combination of shouki and surplus weight made it difficult. Only narrowly missing, a branch brushed against her side, slicing off pieces of fur. She tried to move away, but the branch curved and wrapped itself around her body. She tried to force herself out but several additions of branches attached to her, making it impossible.

Bucking her head, she tossed her rider away to protect her from the next attack; however, although her intentions were correct, Byaku still hadn't recovered well enough and it appeared that she would fall, from high in the air, dangerously onto the unwelcoming crags beneath.

Byaku gained a bit of awareness after she felt a slight breeze touch her skin. Wind seemed to gather beneath her and it was able to ease the fall enough that she could still stand after landing. She wasn't sure if it had been simply pure luck, or, what she believed more strongly, that somehow, without moving from his vulnerable position Shihai had saved her with his relation to the wind.

She knew that he was the one that summoned all of the youkai to her village; she knew that her village would most definitely have been crushed, but she didn't want to blame him. She had been blaming men for too long.

She opened kazanna, causing Naraku to rush toward his safety area behind the unmoving bodyguard, Shihai. She thought it was no more than a coward cowering behind another coward.

Kazanna caused her more pain than normal this time, but she forced herself to concentrate on the battle. She recalled hiraikotsu, and was able to aim it correctly to hit Naraku, who had not been expecting the attack.

The boomerang was able to free Kiara and drive him far away enough from his protection for Byaku to finish him off with kazanna. She knew the pain would be worse, and fears and uncertainties began to grow in her, but she refused to lose; she had to be strong. She had to be strong, to protect mother, so that she wouldn't be sad anymore, so the tears that began the day of her father's death would disappear, so that the sickness inflicted upon her from excessive battles would miraculously disappear. She suddenly realized how vain she had been, in believing that strength would solve everything.

Maybe, if after this moment the curse in her left hand destroyed her, it would be a just end, the way she believed it was with her father. Maybe, if after this moment the curse in her left hand destroyed her, it would be an unfair end, as it may have been with her father. Her opponent didn't seem to fear death. Shihai was still and calm throughout the entire affair. Maybe she was the coward.

She feared what might happen next. Her father had lived every day of his life in fear, knowing that at any moment his curse could take his life away. She had ignorantly labelled him a coward. She denied her fears, forcing herself to be stronger than her father by proclaiming not to be a coward afraid of a stupid curse. Now she knew, she was afraid, just as her father was.

An arrow flew, like an angel answering a prayer, and completely obliterated Naraku. From the energy swirling around it, she recognized it as a purification arrow, but more importantly, she realized that the archer must have trained longer and harder than herself, as the arrow had passed so easily as it crossed directly through kazanna's path.

She closed kazanna quickly, and held it to her chest where she could feel her intensely beating heart. She was safe.

She forgot about searching for the archer, and tried to wake Kiara; however, the firecat appeared to be too weak to continue. "How useless," she thought angrily as she went alone to the burning village where her mother was, leaving behind two worthless creatures that were unable to help her in the only time she truly needed it. Her vision saw only the flames. She could walk only one path, only to those flames, as if they were inviting her.

After she had left, the priestess Kikyo appeared. Taking the shikon shard gently in her soft hands, she instantly purified its evil, and seemed to hear Naraku's cries of pain. Her face revealed no emotions.

It was near dawn when Byaku finally arrived at the village. The fire had stopped, but everything had already burnt down. There were piles of youkai corpses and bones, all of them defeated by her mother. She had been unable to help her, help her mother, in this battle.

She searched for her mother wildly through the remnants of the village, shouting her name and lifting heavy pieces of rubble. For the first time, tears began to flow from her.

She heard a subtle noise, and locating it quickly, she found her mother. Sango was covered in wounds, burns, and she had broken bones all throughout her body.

"About your father," she began dearly.

"Don't talk. Save your strength," her daughter pleaded through her tears.

"Everyday, your father lived in fear. That's why he could never take a relationship seriously. All he thought about was bearing a child so that his wrath against Naraku could be carried on. He never thought about being a parent or a husband.

Your father believed that the best way to defeat Naraku was using Kohaku's shard. He never said this to me, out of concern, but I could tell. Even I thought we should use Kohaku's shard, but I didn't. Your father had to use kazanna continuously for over an hour. We eventually defeated Naraku, but we both knew his death would be soon. He tried his best. He wanted to stay alive so badly to see his child born, and to be a proper father and a proper husband.

He didn't know that the village was still weak. I didn't tell him that most of the new fighters were still training. I did all of the fighting myself so that he wouldn't have to use kazanna, but he found out what I was doing when I became a sick. He came with me on one of my missions, even though I kept telling him I was fine. I was supposed to destroy a nest full of sleeping demons, but I messed up and woke them up. If he hadn't been there and saved me with kazanna, I would have died.

When I raised you, I tried pretending to be strong, but you knew I was in pain. Eventually you began believing that your father was the cause of my pain, but that wasn't right. You can't blame your father. More than anything, he wanted to stay alive and raise you himself. He didn't want you to bear the burden of fighting Naraku as he had. He wanted to free you. It was my fault."

"No, mother, it wasn't. I knew it wasn't his fault, but I blamed him anyway. It's my fault. What caused you the most pain was that I hated your father, the man you loved so dearly. You wanted me to love him, and see him as the great man that he really was, but I was the stubborn one. But I don't hate him anymore! I don't hate him mother, so please, please, just live!"

"No, I can't anymore."

"Please!"

"It's too late already."

"Mother!"

"Listen, from now on, live true. You don't have to kill Kohaku. I vowed, that I wouldn't forgive him for his sins, but I couldn't do it, so I pushed the burden to you. I was unfair, a horrible mother."

"No-"

"One part of me saw only his sins, another part of me saw him only as my brother, and another part of wanted to help my friends. I fell apart. I don't want you to do the same. This shard, give it to a priestess, then, you won't have to fight anymore. You can walk any path you choose. Take care of Kiara. Be strong. Be happy. Find love. You are my precious daughter."

After her mother passed away, she continued holding her in her arms, making no noise, even as the sun rose and the peoples' day began. Some people came to the village, coming to request assistance, but then they saw, and went away.

She continued crying, as though all the tears that had been withheld were now leaking out uncontrollably. She wanted to let the poison take her own life away, and hold the person she loved more than anything in her arms, for eternity. 


	14. Chapter 14

Broken Ashes

When Byaku finally awoke, it felt as though she had died and come back to life, with mixed feelings. Shihai and Kiara were there, obviously, relieved, and obviously tired from waiting, but she had nothing to say to them. Her voice, her face, her heart - everything was blank.

Another figure entered the small temporary shack that was to heal her. She was tall and beautiful, wearing white and carrying a longbow.

"I've treated you as best I can," she said quietly, "but I do not possess the skills to completely heal you. There is a legend, that there is a mystical well containing a portal to the future. There, you find a medicine that can cure you."

Byaku revealed absolutely no concern. She replied emotionlessly, "You are a priestess. Then, take the shards."

"I would imagine much painful effort was put into gathering these. Are you sure you will so simply trust them to me?"

"I'm tired of fighting."

"Everyone is, but those who are able do not always have a choice. I will take these shards, and when Naraku has gathered every piece I will purify him. This is a fate I have long accepted. I will take the burden from you; you do not need to fight anymore, if that is truly what you wish."

Before leaving, she gave her the shikon fragment that she had previously collected. She told her that the only way to gain access through the well was with a pure fragment; therefore, her life depended most on her feelings.

As soon as the shard touched her, it lost its virgin lustre and became a dark crimson.

After the miko left, Kiara and Shihai shuffled, breaking the awkward silence. "I understand you've been through many harsh things," he said carefully, "so I'll give you a little time to think, but who knows when the poison will kick in. If we don't hurry, you might not make it."

"It's meaningless," she retorted. "This shard can't help."

"Just because it doesn't look like it'll work out now, doesn't mean it can't change. We have to try."

"Why?"

"There are many people that are counting on you. You're a strong demon hunter. You can save lives."

"So what."

"You're really a kind person. You're willing to fight anything to protect people."

"No, I fought only for myself. I didn't care about anybody else. I'm not kind; I'm a horrible person."

"That's not true. Even if you don't care about the other people that need you... I also... I want you to live."

When she said nothing, Shihai, with a stern countenance, strode to where she was lying, and forced the shard from her hand. He exited the shack, with Kiara following, and departed past the broken ash, wood, and spirits of the destroyed village.

"I don't care how she feels right now," he told Kiara. "I'm going to save her. I'll do it. She probably thinks I can't handle it, but I'll do it."

When they arrived at the well, they really didn't have any idea of how to pass through. They climbed to the bottom, and tried stomping, digging, and clawing at the ground. They tried meditating, random incantations, and jumping up and down. Nothing worked.

"They key to our travel is this shard," he said with frustration, "but we can't find the right lock. This is pointless. This is just a broken piece of a whole. This is supposed to represent our last hope, but it's just a prayer for a miracle without an answer. It doesn't shine."

Though they had the purest intentions of rescuing a friend, the shard would not cooperate. They climbed out of the well, and he stared back inside, at a black pit, that was supposed to be his portal to Byaku's salvation. Angrily, he threw the shard into the pit and watched it disappear. As a boy, he once believed in the legend, of tossing a possession into a fountain, and having a wish granted, but eventually like all those who utilize logic, he was disheartened by the truth. Into a parched well, he gave his last hope, knowing nothing would come of it. He turned away, losing his faith, but returned again when he heard a rumbling from within the well.

"Did it work?" he asked aloud with unprecedented excitement.

The well, a mystical well, also known as the Bone Gobbler's Well, was used by neighbouring villages to deposit the remains of defeated youkai. Magically, the decayed corpses and bones would disappear from the world, presumably to enter the afterlife.

A long, slithering dragon demon emerged from the well, laughing hauntingly. "Was it you, boy," it echoed, "that has given me a second life? This shard, it carries dark feelings similar to my own; it was these feelings that allowed me to reclaim my life. I am very thankful, boy, but do not expect any reward. In my life again, I plan on acting by desire. Human flesh, is of the utmost potency."

It grinned, flashing its teeth, as it descended on a terrified Shihai. Kiara intercepted, and was able to cause a gash on the side of its neck, but the shard allowed it to regenerate its flesh and pound the firecat to the ground.

Recalling some purpose, Shihai hopped onto Kiara's back and unsheathed his wakazashi, a short sword usually used for defence, and prepared to attack. His strength was unable to penetrate the dragon's scales, and his weapon flew from his hands. Kiara was more successful, but the dragon was able to sneakily attack her with its tail.

Shihai was separated from Kiara, but instead of falling he was captured by the dragon's tail, and bound to prevent escape. Kiara attacked ferociously, to trying to free him before he was eaten, but she was not fighting at her full potential - because either she was suffering from Naraku's poison, or disheartened by Sango's death, or disillusioned by Byaku's lack of presence.

With the purest intentions they had come to well, with hopes and prayers of saving a friend, but their calls were unheeded and now they were dangling, prey to a predator.

With no clear intentions, she had come. She was without her friends, without her family, without a proper purpose in living. For too long, she lived, only to fight, without really knowing the reason why. Now slowly, a reason formed within her, when she saw her two friends, in danger.

With hiraikotsu, Byaku easily freed both of them from the dragon's grasp, and then spotting the faint glimmer of the shard, she planted the boomerang in the ground and leapt from its tip to snatch the shikon fragment.

When she landed, her legs gave way and she collapsed, beginning to once again feel the pains of her poison, and the will to resist. To Kiara she said, "Everything changed when my mother died. I thought I had lost everything, but I ignored the fact that she was an important person to you too. I know I haven't treated you well; I thought of you only as a battling partner. My mother wanted me to live without following anyone's orders, now I too, want you to live freely. You no longer have to serve me, or fight demons."

To Shihai, she said, "I'm sorry for always calling you weak. I guess I was the weak one, after my mother died. You were the one that kept fighting, and because of your feelings, I think I was able to reclaim my life. Thank you. You must hate me. You should leave me."

"No, I was weak," he said to her, smiling. "You saved me again, like you always do. Even if it means being weak, I don't mind being saved by you. I still want to be with you. I'll become stronger, and then you won't be in as much pain." Kiara mewed in agreement.

"Maybe, my life isn't about fighting or about missions. Maybe it was simpler. Maybe I was meant to protect my friends, travel with my friends, laugh with my friends. Thank you, Kiara, thank you Shihai, for staying with me. I want to live again, if it means to be with you."

Their shard, held in conjoined hands, began to glow. Their hands held together, they ventured into the well. This time, together, it didn't seem so dark, so empty, so faithless. In their lives, they were free to go to anywhere they chose, but they chose to be together. 


	15. Chapter 15

Welcome to Reality

They felt themselves be hazily transported, tumbling and fumbling into a new world. They emerged submerged, blind and desperate in an a calm ocean. Eventually, they realized that unluckily the well had been filled with water; however, it meant that they were truly experiencing the world at the other side of their wishing well.

When they finally escaped from the water, they were too short on air, too short on strength to move another muscle, and collapsed before their eyes could see the environment of the world that was to save them.

Byaku's condition was the worst and was the last one to waken. There were four people waiting for her recovery. She didn't recognize either the grandpa, who was mumbling some unorthodox prayer incantation and holding a redundant charm to ward evil, or the mother, who offered her some warm soup. She thanked them properly, then savoured her first swallow as she hadn't eaten in a long time.

"I didn't think that the well still worked," the grandpa exclaimed. "It hasn't worked for 14 years. It's a good thing I still remembered how to make that remedy."

"The medicine here must be very advanced," Shihai remarked.

"It's not that great! Everyone prefers the new snappy and flashy technology; No one cares about shrines like this. People just don't seem to appreciate the value of the traditions this shrine upholds!"

"The times are changing," the mother said to calm him down.

"It's unbelievable! Even my own grandson left this shrine to become a businessman!"

Byaku saw a photo, of a family. She watched it sadly. The young boy's absence was explained, but there was another figure, a bright and brilliant teenage girl, full of spark and potential. "The girl in this picture..." - the words fell from her mouth.

"That's," the mother began, with a definite tone of extended sorrow, "my daughter. This is her room. We haven't been in here for a long time."

"She's got rheumatism. She's in the hospital," the grandpa interjected.

Byaku humoured them, deciding not to question them any further. The mother left, to cook oden for dinner, and told her guests they were welcome to stay. The grandpa followed her out of the room, complaining about having the same dish yet again.

"I'm perfectly fine now," Byaku told to her friends. "We should probably leave. I don't want to endanger these nice people. Somehow, I feel like we're putting them in danger, with this shard. It feels like a heavy burden in my hand, calling forth a greater threat."

They all agreed, and once again formally thanked their hosts with a bow, including Kiara, then returned to the well. Along the way, they noticed a large tree, and pinned to it with an old weathered arrow was a boy with dog ears, a hanyou, a half human and half demon. Intrigued, surprised, and concerned, they decided to take a closer inspection.

They got as close as they could, until the arrow's barrier rejected them. As a demon hunter, Byaku immediately thought the boy was a threat, but he actually seemed peaceful, and sad, as the arrow sealed his existence. At his side was an old and rusty sword with its scabbard; she wondered how long he had been there at the tree, suffering peacefully and silently.

The shard began to glow, reacting. The sword began to rattle and the arrow began to glimmer. "Is it because of him?" she wondered. Although both he and his weapon seemed harmless, she didn't want to risk unsealing him.

She stepped away, but the reaction didn't stop. The grandpa and mother hurried outside to see what was happening, leaving the oden to boil over. The cloud darkened, and a large black butterfly appeared.

"Youkai?" Byaku wondered aloud. "Did it follow us through the well? Is it attracted to the shard?"

"You have a shard!" the grandpa exclaimed. "Do not worry, I will defeat your enemies." He threw a talisman charm, but it disintegrated before making contact, causing him to gape with extreme shock.

"It didn't work," the mother noticed.

"It's impossible! These charms were handed down through many generations. This monster must have incredible power to withstand them!"

With one clean stroke, the butterfly was defeated by hiraikotsu, augmenting the grandpa's disbelief and indignation. After the butterfly disappeared, a thin piece of paper fell from its former position, and landed softly on the ground. Byaku realized that the it was not a youkai, but a shikigami, a monster with a paper base, usually controlled by a kuro miko, an evil priestess. She hadn't expected to witness a hanyou, a shikigami, or a kuro miko in the future, but she wasn't unprepared, having dealt with shikigami.

She had never dealt with a kuro miko, however. The paper returned to the owner, floating without the aid of wind. The owner wore only black and dark blue. She carried a bow with her, and immense jyaki, evil energy, could be sensed from her. Despite her darkness, she was still a human, like Kohaku. Her face was human. Not only that, Byaku recognized her face from the picture, except this version of that girl had lost all of her brightness, like someone who had lost all her dreams and hopes and joys of everyday life.

"I'm here for the shard," she declared harshly.

"Kagome..." the grandpa and mother uttered in unison. 


	16. Chapter 16

Welcome to Reality (Part 2) 

Kagome ignored her family, and instead focused only on her opponents. Before Byaku and Kiara could form a tandem, she fired an arrow to separate them. From the arrow spread evil energy, causing any greenery in its path to darken and decay.

The arrow also had another ulterior motive, as it was able to shave a single hair from Kiara's fur, and with her magic, Kagome formed the strand of hair with the paper to form a shikigami copy of the firecat. It was an exact replica, with the accuracy of a reflection. They jeered at each other and clashed in midair, and soon it was impossible to discriminate between the two.

Byaku decided to focus on the one controlling the shikigami, by attacking her with hiraikotsu; however, comprehending the tears of the grandpa and mother watching in fear, caused her not to use all of her strength. It didn't matter anyway, as the kuro miko formed a barrier to protect herself.

Another arrow was fired, and Byaku dodged, but the arrow curved back at her, according to the archer's will. She dodged again, but dropped the shard, and Kagome was able to call it to her with her magic. Immediately upon her touch, the shard darkened. She said nothing, leaving with what she had come for, the shard. She didn't answer the calls of her family, but she did appear to observe them, albeit with an expressionless face.

Byaku and Shihai moved to chase, but they still had to deal with the fake Kiara. Both animals were equally fierce in their approach, causing great difficulty, as neither Byaku nor Shihai were sure of which one to aid.

Shihai closed his eyes in deep concentration. In his mind he saw the piece of paper central to the shikigami, and could hear that paper fluttering in the almost intangible wind. He informed Byaku of the enemy's identity, allowing her to quickly use hiraikotsu to destroy the impostor and cause only its initial paper form to fall harmlessly to the ground.

"We'll save your her," Byaku promised the family. "A shikigami user has to stay within a certain range to operate her monster; therefore, she can't be far. We'll save her, and bring her back."

"She has been this way for a long time," the grandpa said seriously. "We always thought that maybe a small fragment of her former self might still exist, but I fear we have been hoping for too long. She must be stopped." The mother agreed sadly.

"I know, you hate to see her this way. You can't forgive her for the things she's done, but don't forget the person you knew, the person you shared memories with, the person you loved. She is still there. I will find her."

"Thank you, thank you," the mother repeated, allowing her tears to escape. "You are really a kind person, a very kind person. I was ready to give up, after hoping for almost 14 years. Oden was her favourite food. I cooked oden everyday, thinking she might return home and act as giddily as she did as a child. I thought today might be the last day I cooked it, but I will cook it tomorrow, and the days after until she returns. Save her, I beg of you. I still believe her. Reach her and tell her that when she returns, her favourite food will still be waiting for her."

"I will, I promise. A mother and daughter, are meant to be together."

The mother returned to the kitchen, to clean the mess. The grandfather grumpily assisted, complaining about yet another oden.

"Don't worry, I feel that today's will be the last one in a long time," she assured him.

"It would be the happiest day of my life," he admitted.

Kiara with her two riders, followed the paper as per Byaku's directions. She had been counting on Kagome to recall the paper, thereby revealing where she was hiding, hiding from her family. She sensed it was close.

"You really are going out of your way to help them," Shihai said out of the blue. "Even if she was once the smiling girl from that photo, her current form is dreadful. To me it seems your thinking about your own experience. By saving that family, do you somehow think you can alter your own reality?"

"I just want to help them, that's all," she answered. "But, you might be right. I still regret a lot of things about what happened. I might only be helping them because I sympathize with their situation, but maybe that's better than fighting only for myself. I simply didn't want them to lose faith. As long as I fight, they can keep hoping. Besides, we can't return to our world without the shard."

"This place doesn't look bad. I imagine these kinds of things don't happen often. This world might be more peaceful than ours."

"Don't you feel attached to the place where you were born?"

"Not, exactly."

"Maybe this world really is better. Maybe our beliefs are outdated. Maybe their technology is improving the world. Still, in this world I see hopes and beliefs almost are not anywhere. If this world is the reality, then our world is a fantasy."

They followed the paper to an open area with a forest, where loggers had cleared the trees away. Byaku scanned the environment, and her intuition caused her to worry. She tried to warn the others, but they had disappeared. She noticed a fog that she had noticed before. Painfully, she realized that she had walked into a trap: Kagome had let them follow the paper.

Byaku ran forward, but met a strong barrier. Shihai and Kiara were inside, she knew. Even if they pressed at opposite sides of the barrier, facing each other, they still wouldn't be able to touch or see or hear one another. Somehow, somehow, she had to get in.

Shihai tried to peer through the fog, but could not find Byaku. He wanted to prove he was strong and courageous, but he wasn't quite ready. Frantically searching proved fruitless, and his attention was drawn to a shadowy figure approaching from one end of the fog. Kiara's growling intensified, as did his anxiety, as Kagome appeared.

She stopped just in front of him, and raised her hand with her palm up, like a kind person offering candy; however, in her hand was the tainted shard. After an incantation of the dark arts, the shard began to glow darker, as it gathered evil energy from its surroundings. From the shard grew a Naraku puppet, although it still caused real fear for Shihai.

"Don't run," the kuro miko spoke spookily, as if reading his mind, "he wishes to have a word with you."

He didn't run, even though his mind told him to. The fog grew stronger, and soon both Kagome and Kiara disappeared from his vision. He was now alone, with Naraku, and all he could hear was the gulping tension in his throat and the dark chuckle of the man facing him.

Naraku let words slither from his tongue: "How long will you run, before turning around and looking closer at what is reality?"


	17. Chapter 17

Welcome to Reality (Part 3)

Byaku mustered all of her strength and challenged Kagome's barrier with hiraikotsu. Almost half of the boomerang was able to cross the field, but energy soon began to gather and force the boomering out. It returned, with over twice the speed, but Byaku reacted quickly and caught it.

She had been trying to break through for a long time now, and it was beginning to take a toll on her body. Closing her eyes for a fleeting moment of rest, she becalmed and began thinking that strength alone would not break through the barrier.

She used one of her father's talisman charms, but this time, her thoughts were different. She placed the charm on hiraikotsu, and this time focused more on her spiritual energy than her physical strength. "Father, give me strength," she said as she let the weapon fly, with almost no effort as if it were moving on its own. An opening appeared in the barrier, and refilled after Byaku had entered, but she did not know because she saw only ahead.

She assumed she was running straight forward; however, it was hard to tell because of all the fog. She slowed herself down, in order to calm herself again, and was able to hear the sounds of a battle nearby. Almost magically, a space within the fog seemed to reveal itself. The scene was like an arena, with Kiara facing a black butterfly at the centre of the ring, and Byaku and Kagome facing each other from the ends.

Kiara appeared to have a slight advantage in her battle with the black butterfly. Byaku trusted that her faithful companion could hold her own, and decided to focus her attention to Kagome, the one controlling the butterfly and the one she promised to reclaim.

Byaku ran a straight course at her. The black butterfly threatened to interfere, but Kiara ferociously emerged at the scene and batted it away. Byaku thought about using hiraikotsu, but again she was afraid of hurting the girl, who was both the enemy to be defeated and the girl from the photo to be saved.

She tried using only fists and kicks but Kagome dodged every single attempt with expresionless eyes, that seemed to look in only one direction. She said nothing, her body revealed no change, and with seemingly no effort or emotion she evaded all of the attacks. Byaku had neither made progress nor distracted her enough to obstruct her control of the butterfly.

She finally landed a punch, but Kagome did not react, as though she had felt no pain, and returned the blow. The kuro miko did not actually require contact to deal any damage, instead she opened her palm and stopped it just short of Byaku's chest. For a split second nothing happened, and then a burst of energy was released with much more force than any physical attack Byaku had ever experienced.

The situation suddenly changed. Byaku was no longer holding back in fear of hurting, she was using all of her strength to defend herself in fear of being hurt. She tried to use words, reminding her of the family that was waiting for her, but she replied she had forgotten such important things.

Feeling pressure, Byaku was forced to use hiraikotsu, but Kagome simply caught it with one hand. Gripping it lightly, dark magic entrapped the boomerang, and under the kuro miko's will it attacked its true owner. Byaku blocked it, straining her wrists. With amazing speed, Kagome had already appeared behind her and aimed another attack at her back, once again without physical contact.

She tried her father's charms, but Kagome's appear shredded through them and curved toward Byaku. It nearly hit her, but she was able to raise her right hand in front of her body and block the arrow. It pierced through wrist, but did not hit any vital spots. The pain was not too much; however, an odd feeling suddenly overcame her, as dark energy spread from the arrow's intrusion and invaded her arm, threatening to take over her body.

She gripped her arm tightly, desperately trying to calm herself, but she was sweating now as the darkness continued to spread, faster than before. Her entire right arm, from shoulder to fingertips was longer under her own control. The arrow disintegrated, and the arm, acting upon Kagome's will, groped through Byaku's pouch of battle equipment, and clenched all of her charms. They burned and decayed into a dark mist.

"Now there is magic left that you can fight me with," Kagome told her ghastly.

Her right arm had other ideas, as it forcefully gripped her other arm, and tried to release the seal on her kazanna. Byaku with all of her will to stop, but she knew the kazanna was the only way to defeat Kagome and save herself. Her arm was simply acting upon that thought.

Suddenly, she remembered, she did have one more option. The grandfather had given her one of his useless talisman charms, and although Byaku did not think they would be of any use, she was forced to humour the eccentric old man and politely accept the archaic tools of spiritual magic. She was willing to try, in this situation.

Without her arms, Byaku was able to place her last charm in her mouth, and gather her energy, sending a prayer as the talisman flew from her mouth. Kagome fired an arrow at it, but with incredible luck, there was a sudden gust of wind, allowing the charm to evade the arrow. Kagome erected a barrier. The charm made contact with the barrier, causing a great explosion.

Byaku faintly remembered the grandfather instructing her how to use the charm. It was when they were first planning to leave, and although they were eager to leave they were forced to listen to his incessant rumblings. They were a burden then, but now, she began to believe that his knowledge was real.

The charm was forged from a piece of testuaiga's scabbard. She had no idea what kind of sword tesusaiga was. The charm contained the same two functions as the scabbard: first, to hold the sword's power, and second, to call forth the sword's power.

A sword fell from the sky, like a shining ray answering to a prayer; however, Byaku was disappointed to see that it was the same rusty sword from the hanyou. Nevertheless, she felt new determination grow within her, and with her right arm, she managed to grasp its tattered hilt.

The dark energy disappeared from her arm, and the sword began to react violently. Suddenly, it exploded, blowing wind in every direction. Both Byaku and Kagome were lifted into the air by the sudden storm, but Kiara was able to catch them and take them to a safe area.

When the storm ended, Byaku realized that the fog had disappeared, and that Kagome was crying.

Shihai tried to run from Naraku, but in the fog he could not see in which direction he was going. Everywhere he turned, somehow he still always seemed to see Naraku waiting for him. He was breathing quicker than before, even though he had not been running for long.

"You have skills that no other man possesses," Naraku said coaxingly. "You must put them to good use. The winds is at your fingertips."

"I have no desire to control the wind," he retorted. "The wind is a monster."

"You really think that nothing good can come out of your mastery of the wind? With only a little more training, you will be able to free Byaku from the kazanna curse. You know don't you, that the curse will eventually be her grave. Don't you want to save her?"

"You're lying!"

"I'm not lying. You know this is reality."

"No!"

With a strong refusal, a sudden burst of wind formed, obliterating Naraku. Shihai breathed uncertainly, unsure of what had happened. Naraku was gone, so he was safe, he believed, although the fog still instilled fear. Naraku's echoing laugh returned, but in the fog, Shihai could not see the source.

From the still impure shard, Naraku began to grow. "That was most excellent," he applauded Shihai. "It is truly terrifying, the power you are capable of."

"It can't be."

"You saw it, didn't you. That was your power. Just fantasize the boundless accomplishments of that power."

Naraku extended a branch, and slowly began to pull Shihai toward him, who was neither moving nor resisting. "That's a good boy," he chuckled, as Shihai was drawn closer and closer.

An arrow, cut through the fog and destroyed Naraku, and purified the shard as well. Naraku angrily realized that it was a purification arrow, that only a miko, a true holy priestess was capable of.

Kiara, with Kagome, Byaku, and a reserved area for the shaken Shihai. He tried to laugh it off, but Byaku could tell there was something strange about him; however, the most important thing at the moment was returning Kagome to her family. A path could now be seen through the fog, as thought it had always been there.

There were tears and hugs, and long, long speeches by the grandpa, like a ceremony. Finally, after endless thankyous, Byaku, Shihai, and Kiara were finally able to return through the well and unfortunately miss that night's oden dinner. Kagome's mother returned to the kitchen to set the table, and for once the grandfather was not complaining, and instead was on the phone.

Before returning inside, Kagome kneeled in front of the great tree, goshinboku, where Inuyasha was imprisoned. "I'm sorry," she began, though she knew an apology was meaningless at this point, and she didn't really know what she was going to say. Inuyasha was fighting with Naraku, when she launched that arrow. She wanted to help him, even though she knew he was fighting to protect Kikyo, and when she fired that arrow, there was jealousy, and something not quite right in her heart. The shikon no tama exploded into shards again, but Inuyasha was directly involved and gravely injured. Although he protested, she forced him to return to her home so she could treat him. Kikyo came too. She treated Inuyasha instead, and he didn't even complain. They spent a lot of time together.

Eventually, the shard, in Kagome's hands, became tainted, and one of Naraku's puppets emerged, and taught her in the ways of the kuro miko. She left her family, and sealed Inuyasha to the tree. Kikyo managed to purify the shard, but Kagome had already disappeared. Kikyo returned to her own time, knowing that her quest to defeat Naraku had not yet ended.

Kagome cried, apologizing over and over again, in front of the sealed Inuyasha. She tried to touch him, but the arrow's barrier prevented her. She wondered if this was her fair punishment. She apologized for all the times she hurt him, for all the times she was jealous of Kikyo, and among other things, for all the times she had said "sit."

The word caused a reaction with the rosary seal; the arrow disappeared. He went berserk, but stopped when he saw that Kagome was crying, tears of happiness.

That night, it was a truly fabulous oden dinner. There were six at the dining table. Their cat Buoya who usually was a sloth all day long, had come to the feast. Souta had managed to get a day off from work. Kagome jubilantly hogged all of the oden for herself, and her mother promised her that they'd have it many times again, as it was her favourite food. Her grandpa complained loudly, even though it really was the happiest day of his life. 


	18. Chapter 18

O Protector From the Wind

There was a violent, horrifying storm that night. Rain pelted, lightning pierced, thunder bellowed, and wind lay ruin upon the earth. In a little cave, beside a little fire, Rin, no longer a little girl, was awake, unable to rest while a violent storm was brewing. Jaken was already sound asleep, snoring peacefully, but Rin had always feared feared violent storms such as this ever since even before she had met Sesshoumaru.

"It is all right," he said to her, "you can sleep now." He was sitting near the entrance of the cave, gazing calmly and courageously into the storm, occasionally shielding her from debris sent by the wind.

"I'm fine," she lied, hoping to appear strong and impress him. "You should rest too."

"I'm not tired."

"Then neither am I."

"Aren't you afraid of the storm?"

"I'm not afraid, as long as your here."

He didn't reply, and neither of them fell alseep, even though they were tired, as they waited for the storm to pass.

The next morning was bright and sunny, not at all alike to the previous night. Rin was up early, and she announced that she was going to search for food for breakfast. Her shouts upset Jaken, groggily waking him from his slumber.

Cheerfully, Rin was picking colourful berries when the bushes suddenly began to shake, and a bear demon suddenly attacked her. She dropped some of her berries and screamed, alerting Sesshoumaru, who instantly hurried to the predicament, stepping on the still tired Jaken in the process.

She tried to run, but tripped on a tree root and fell. She turned, and saw the bear demon lift its claws. She closed her eyes, wishing for him to save her like he always did. The bear swiped, but she heard its claws clash with a sword. He must have saved her!

She opened her eyes, and was surprised to see a young boy whom she hadn't seen for a very long time. Kohaku still looked exactly the same as he did from when she befriended him back then. She knew it was because of the shard in his back.

Kohaku drove the bear away and wounded its paw, causing it to groan in pain and chaotically swipe in every direction. Before it could attack again, however, a gust of wind lifted it into the air, and launched it a far distance away. It had been a long time since she had seen Kagura as well, who also looked exactly as she remembered.

Sesshoumaru arrived a second too late, and seemed to lower his eyes only slightly when he saw who the saviours were. When he said nothing, Kagura said to him sarcastically, "Your welcome."

"I didn't require your assistance," he replied. He turned, beckoning for Rin to follow.

"We haven't seen each other for so long and that's all you have to say? We've finally located Kanna. Today we plan on defeating Naraku. Will you run away and protect your princess, or will you fight?"

"I have no intention of fighting that filth. I have no obligation to help you, either."

"I never said I wanted your assistance."

He once again turned, and beckoned for Rin to follow. She took one last look at Kagura and Kohaku, before leaving.

She offered him the few berries she had managed to salvage, but he refused, stating that he wasn't hungry, so she cheerfully enjoyed their sweetness.

After she was done, she asked, without warning, "Kohaku is dead, isn't he? Could you save him, if you used tenseiga, like when you saved me? Please, save Kohaku."

He thought about her request, and moved to grab tenseiga's hilt. He watched the sword rattle, as thought it were reacting. Tenseiga was a sword with the ability to save a person's life, and sometimes it seemed to act with a will of its own. He touched the hilt, and a barrier seemed to reject him. He thought to himself, "Tenseiga, you don't wish to save that boy's life? Only trouble will come of it."

He didn't answer Rin's proposition, saying nothing.

"Sesshoumaru-sama!" she whined like a child begging for candy, but she was not a child anymore. It pained him to disappoint her, but he trusted the judgment of tenseiga, a sword that was once his father's.

When they returned to the little cave, Jaken was waiting for them impatiently. "What took you so long?" he demanded of Rin. "I've been waiting her the whole time, starving! And you didn't even save any berries for me!" He could see juices trail messily on her face and shirt. She simply blinked innocently and cutely. She was like a child that needed a bib.

"I'm sorry Jaken-sama," she apologized. "I dropped the other berries when I was attacked by a scary monster, but luckily I was saved."

"You always rely on Sesshoumaru-sama to save you when you get into trouble. Rin, you're a grown woman now! When are you going to start taking care of yourself?"

"Actually, I was saved by Kohaku and Kagura. They were very nice people."

"Look at what you did! Because of you, Sesshoumaru-sama was forced to face two people that he despises! You cause nothing but trouble for him!"

She felt guilty all day. When night came, another storm rampaged, exactly like the one from the previous night. Just as it was before, Rin sat beside the little fire in the little cave as Sesshoumaru guarded the entrance.

"Is it true," she asked quietly, "what Jaken-sama said? Do I really cause only trouble for you? Am I old enough to take care of myself? Am I supposed to leave?"

"You don't have to leave," he told her. "I don't mind if you stay, if that is what you like."

"I want to stay with Sesshoumaru-sama. That way I'll be safe from the scary storms. Thank you. I know you were trying to save me. I'm sorry if you disliked meeting them today."

"It was nothing."

"I thought so. You don't really hate Kohaku-kun. You like Kagura-san. Why won't you save Kohaku-kun?"

Sesshoumaru didn't answer, and instead told her to sleep. This time she did. After he had fallen asleep too, she opened one eye, and carefully tiptoed toward him. She slowly slid tenseiga from its scabbard, then exited the little, cozy cave and stared into the dark night, suffering from the continuous storm, of rain, lightning, thunder, and wind.

"I'm sorry, Sesshoumaru-sama," she whispered, shivering from the cold. "I want to stay with you forever, but I have to do this." 


	19. Chapter 19

Shatter

"So, what are we going to do now?" Shihai asked, as he and Byaku were riding atop Kiara. Neither of them really had any idea of what their next move was. Kagome had told them that they key to defeating Naraku was in the wound of the wind; however, testusaiga, the sword capable of seeing it, was broken. Shihai simply refused to believe that a monster such as the wind could feel pain, and therefore it couldn't possibly have a wound.

"The first thing I want to is find that miko, Kikyo," she said. "She is an incredibly good person. She saved me, and I never properly thanked her. Hopefully, she'll know something about the wound of the wind."

Kikyo was currently in distress. She was lying against a deceased tree, as she waited for her demons to steal souls from the dead and deliver them to her. Since she did not have a stable soul herself, she had to use the souls of others as her life force. As of late, her condition had grown worse, forcing her to resort to desperate measures.

A small emotionless figure approached her, carrying a mirror with both her hands. She released souls from the mirror and allowed Kikyo to absorb them, then disappeared to collect more. Feeling a bit better, she was able to stand again, but she knew it wouldn't last long.

"Kukuku," Naraku's familiar laugh echoed. He appeared, holding an almost complete shikon no tama in his palm, with only one shard remaining. "Not satisfied with the souls of the dead Kikyo, so now you're stealing from the living? How shameful."

"It won't be long," she retorted. "Once you obtain that last shard, you will see the last of your life."

"As I recall, it was the very same shard that caused so much confusion the last time. I wonder, if some might not be willing to sacrifice his life."

"I'll take it myself if I have to."

"How cruel."

"I guess I'm not as kind as you thought I was."

Under Kikyo's orders, Kanna mercilessly took the souls from every living body in the village into her mirror. The setting became absolutely still and quiet, until the soulless bodies began to rise, and slowly float toward the fragile Kanna.

"I won't let you get away," Kagura said. "These bodies are upset, having lost their souls to you. Now you will pay for your own deed."

With her fan, she commanded them to attack, but was forced to jerk them to a halt when hiraikotsu propelled itself between the attackers and the fragile, precious child.

"A brat like you shouldn't be getting in my way," Kagura said to Byaku, as she caught the boomerang while riding on Kiara. "This is important business."

"What did you do to those villagers?" Byaku demanded. "And why are you attacking that child."

"You're too naive. That child is a youkai, a deadly one. She is nihility, so she feels nothing no matter how many lives she takes. That mirror of hers can absorb souls. But I plan to cause her power to backfire, since my fan can control not only the dead, but also the soulless."

"But if you attack her with so much force, the mirror will break and the souls will be lost forever!"

"That's a risk both Kohaku and I are willing to take. In order to complete the second stage, Naraku requires both the full shikon no tama and numerous souls. If I break the mirror, we can defeat Naraku."

"Kohaku? He wouldn't agree to something like that!"

Kohaku dressed himself for battle, equipping him with the strongest and most dangerous and most deadly of all the taijiya material. Today was the day when he defeated Naraku, he told himself, and prepared to end everything.

An arrow approached him, almost unnoticed. He just managed to dodge, as the arrow scraped his right knee, but he didn't feel any pain as he was a living dead supported by a shikon shard. The archer was Kikyo, making good her to claim to take the shard by herself if she had to. The next arrow caused a boulder to explode, knocking Kohaku from the top of a cliff. When he landed, he was surprised to see Rin running toward him.

She was extensively tired. She had been running through the entire night, in the storm. Her clothes were ripped and torn, she had numerous wounds and scratches, and her body ached. In her hand, she held the blade, tenseiga.

The sword began to glow, and act on its own will. Rin tried to settle it, but even with both hands she could not stop it. The sword drove through Kohaku's body, and pushed the shard from his flesh. She quickly pulled the sword free, and it instantly began to crack, then shatter.

She tried to check on him to see if he was really okay, but an arrow suddenly appeared and divided them. The impact caused Rin to fall away from Kohaku, and the shard landed behind her. Kikyo jumped from the top of the cliff and landed safely, and demanded the shard from Rin. Kohaku rose to defend her, but was suddenly suffering from the scrape on his right knee.

Kikyo strung an arrow, and it looked as though both Rin and Kohaku would be hit, but Sesshoumaru blocked the attack with his other sword, toukajin. Rin couldn't believe he had saved her. She had run away, stolen his sword, and broke his sword, but he still saved her. He saved her like he always did.

She tried to apologize, but Sesshoumaru silenced her, very focused on the fight. He ordered Kohaku, "boy," to protect her. He agreed, planning on taking her to a safe place, then rejoining the fight.

Sesshoumaru swung toukajin, but Kikyo was able to block it by using her arrow like a sword. She jumped away to gain distance, then launched it. He ran straight at it, and narrowly avoided it, then stabbed her; however, she did not blade. Before he could reclaim his sword, Kikyo's soul stealing demons appeared and bit into his flesh, carrying him into the air.

Kikyo pulled the sword from her flesh and tossed it aside. The wound healed itself. "You cannot defeat me," she informed him. "I already dead, but was revived by dark magic. Without the tenseiga, the sword that can cut the dead, you cannot cut me."

He ignored her, and freed himself from the demons. He was ready for another bout, but both fighters stopped when they became aware of Naraku's presence. He laughed evilly as one of his branches extended and gathered the final shard. It merged with its brothers, and once again became whole.

He chuckled, "Now, the second stage will be complete."

On cue, Kanna appeared quietly. She was followed by Kagura on her feather, and the other two riding on Kiara. Kagura and Byaku continued arguing over whether or not to destroy the mirror, and even before they could finish their quarrel, Kohaku returned, and destroyed it without hesitation. The mirror shattered into pieces, and its contents, the souls of that entire village, were lost forever. 


	20. Chapter 20

The Dancing Dead (Part 2) 

Naraku looked mildly upset, as he watched the shards of the mirror fall to the ground. "There is still another way I can complete the second stage," he laughed, but with slight anger, and disappeared. Kagura sent Kohaku after him on a feather, and Kiara followed.

"I won't let you brats get in his way," Kagura declared and blasted Kiara with wind. The firecat managed to catch Shihai, but Byaku was too faraway. Shihai called out for her, but he told himself she was strong and would be fine, as he had to focus on the danger in front of him.

Kagura laughed, coaxing him into battle. He didn't know why, but he felt the urge to battle with her. He didn't have many memories of how their previous encounter had turned out, but he wanted to defeat her and prove that it was impossible to control the monster called wind.

Kiara charged, but she couldn't get close as a barrier of wind forced her away. Shihai knew Kagura would eventually create an opening, as she would have to drop the barrier in order to attack. Sensing a change in the wind, he foresaw the moment of lapse, and directed Kiara on where to fly. The firecat attacked through the opening and managed to do minor damage.

Kagura attacked with fuujin no mai, dance of the wind god, but with Shihai's intuition none of the wind blades were able to make contact. Kiara approached again, but this time Kagura erected a new and more formidable barrier, the soulless bodies of the villagers.

Seeing them disgusted Shihai, beyond simple disgust, but some sort of reminder of a hidden dark memory from long before. He halted Kiara's attack, and ended up being hit by a wind blade. Kiara caught him, but they were both pounded to the ground by the soulless bodies. Kiara fought back and was able to protect herself, but Shihai was disturbed and could not retaliate, as every time he tried an unwanted memory would try to force its way into his brain.

Kagura called her army back, and sighed, "Already down? What are you, a baby? Does that booboo on your left leg still hurt?"

He had almost forgotten about that wound on his left leg. He wished he had. It had been several days, and it wasn't a deep wound, but it still had not healed, but he didn't have time to worry about that. Kiara was still fighting with the army. Without her, he wouldn't be able to reach Kagura, who was safely floating on her feather. For now, he would have to endure.

She attacked fuujin no mai, but he dodged every single wind blade; however, she began sending the wind blades to his left, forcing him to put pressure on his left leg in order to dodge right. He found his energy drain from him more than two times normal, and began getting hit every now and then. He was doing fairly well, however.

Eventually, the wind blades stopped, and Shihai dropped onto his right knee, breathing heavily. Kagura, thinking it was time to finish him off, attacked with ryuujin no mai, dance of the dragon god. Monstrous typhoons appeared, but Shihai was ready, as he was able to ride the wind and ascend to Kagura's height. He held his wakazashi high over his head in both hands, but Kagura was smiling, as she too was ready.

"Did you think I'd fall for the exact same thing twice," she said as she formed her fan into a new pattern. "Dance of the sky goddess!"

It was a new attack, but for some reason he found it partly familiar. A large sphere of contained wind, swirling wildly in all directions blasted him, causing tears in his clothes and skin. He was planted into the ground, where the sphere of wind exploded and created a severe depression.

He remembered when he first experienced the attack. It was the same wind as the monster that had destroyed the village of his birth. He remembered when he first experienced the corpse dance. The dead bodies of his family rose and attacked him. He was revolted. He remembered seeing a merciless woman there, a woman as merciless as the wind.

He rose again, to Kagura's surprise. She had expected her last attack to subdue him. If she attacked again, she might actually kill him. She raised her soulless army, assuming he wouldn't attack; however, Shihai seemed different this time.

He hopped, from body to body, until he once again reached Kagura's height. This time he swung his sword with great speed, both wounding her and destroying the feather. Without thinking, she formed another dance of the sky goddess, and a great sphere of wind loomed above a falling Shihai. She tried to calm it, but it was too late, and she lost control.

"No one can control the wind," Shihai said as he fell, "not because it is a monster, but because it is our friend. The key to the wind rituals was not manipulating the wind, but asking the wind for help. The wind doesn't listen to us, nor do we listen to the wind. We help each other when we are in need."

Kiara saved Shihai, but Kagura found herself unable to avoid the giant sphere of wind she had created. As it approached her, she remembered the day when she betrayed Naraku and joined Kohaku. That day, he ordered her to attack an innocent village, all for a child that was some sort of genius. He ordered her to use a new dance, one she hadn't mastered yet. she had no choice but to obey his orders, as he held her heart and could destroy her at any time he pleased. She lost control of the attack, and ended up destroying the entire village. She tried to use the dead to gather the boy, but when she saw that young face, crying, revolted by the sight of the dancing dead bodies, she stopped. She ran away from Naraku with Kohaku, risking her life just because of that young boy. Naraku was defeated, temporarily, but she knew her heart was not yet free.

She closed her eyes, preparing for the impact, but someone suddenly saved her. She was surprised to see Sesshoumaru carry her in his arms, and bring her safely to the ground.

"Thank you," she said tearfully.

"You didn't ask for assistance," he reminded her.

"You're right, I didn't, but thank you anyway. I'm glad you came here. Thank you for saving me. Probably, once Naraku completes second stage, he will dispose of me, as he planned to do all along. Until then, I want to be free, like the wind."

"Your heart has always been free, to feel and go wherever you wished. You are free. Where will yo go?"

"I'll stay with you. It looks like you need help protecting your princess."

"I don't need your help, but I will thank you for when you do."


	21. Chapter 21

To Where the Winds Meet

Kohaku thought he might have seen Naraku from Kagura's feather; however, before he could move closer, hiraikotsu cut through the feather causing him to fall. He hooked his chain onto a branch in order to break the fall, then descended the tree safely to the ground. Hiraikotsu attacked again, this time aimed at him, forcing him to dodge. The boomerang returned to and angry and serious Byaku.

"Kohaku, why did you do it?" she demanded. "You knew that the souls of those villagers were in that mirror!"

"There was no other way," he argued. "The most important thing right now is stopping Naraku. The only way to do that was to destroy the mirror and prevent him from receiving the souls."

"Defeating Naraku - is that how you justify everything? Is that why you murdered all those other villages and castles? Is that why you killed the taijiya during that spider incident? Is that why my mother died?"

"Ane-ue is dead?"

"That's right! It's all your fault!"

"I never wanted that to happen. I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize. I know it wasn't your fault. But when she died, she still believed in you. She wanted to kill you, because of all the sins you have committed, but she couldn't do it, because she still believed you were a good person. I believed too, but now I see that we were both wrong. I won't forgive you."

"Wait! You're just upset about what happened to your mother! You don't really want to fight! There's no time now! We have to stop Naraku!"

"I don't care about Naraku right now!"

They clashed swords, and two kind people, who really wished no harm upon one another, found themselves locked in battle for the second time.

She attacked ferociously, allowing her fury to control her movements. He dodged, as he was able to easily detect where she was attacking since her emotions were too obvious; however, her anger overflowed and overpowered; her attacks were so quick that even though he knew they were coming he only dodged narrowly, and was on the defensive.

She landed a kick to his chest, and while he stumbled, she began unravelling the seal on her kazanna. He quickly wrapped his chain around the rosary seal, forcing it to close. She pulled on the chain, causing him to lose balance, and then kneed him in the gut.

She placed her katana in her mouth, then threw hiraikotsu. He dodged, but it did not return to the owner but instead cut through the chain. She was now able to release kazanna, but he grabbed hiraikotsu and planted it in the ground, using it to shield him from the vacuum. He knew he wouldn't last long, so he put on his gas mask and released a pocket of poison, forcing her to close kazanna.

Just as she had put on her own gas mask, he jabbed her with hiraikotsu, knowing the only way to survive would be to defeat her and then talk to her calmly.

She picked up the half of the chain that had the sickle, and launched it at him, who blocked with hiraikotsu. With other hand, she whipped the other chain, and wrapped it around his ankle. She pulled on it, causing him to fall and drop the boomerang. She aimed the sickle at his throat, but he blocked with his hidden sword, then used his leg to pull on the chain from his end. This time, she lost balance, and she lost her grip on the chain as well.

She still wielded the sickle; however, he connected the chain to hiraikotsu and swung from a distance, landing a blow to her side and forcing her to drop the sickle. He dropped hiraikotsu and attacked with his hidden sword, but she blocked with her own. Neither of them could land a blow, so both tried to gain an advantage by taking their katana in their left hand, and using a two sword style.

They were still even, as they spun, and their blades clashed. By retracting her hidden sword only slightly, she was able to completely change the curve and mathematics behind her attack. It fooled his guard, and although she only managed a small cut, it cut through his gas mask and he began to cough and choke from the poison.

She watched him suffer, as the poison pained his entire body and shortened his breath. She was ready to release kazanna and end his suffering. She did so. She absorbed the poison into her own body to prevent it from entering his, and now she too was suffering from the pain.

"What was I doing?" she asked desperately. "I almost..."

"You were right," he told her. "I've committed too many sins. I shouldn't have destroyed that mirror. My sister would be ashamed to see me acting like this. I never want to kill or hurt again."

"I've done horrible things, but my mother always loved me. I know that if she were here, she would have forgiven you, as I will."

"Even after everything I've done, you will forgive me? Thank you. I want to return to the village with you, and we will pray in front of the graves. I thought it was too late, and that I couldn't be forgiven, so I continued sinning, thinking it would eventually all end. If I had been smart, and realized sister still believed in me, I probably could have found another way."

"But it really is too late now." - it was Naraku's voice; however, he was with Tsubasa. "You made the right decision in destroying the mirror, Kohaku. If you weren't stalled here, maybe you really could have stopped me, but now, the second stage will be complete! The purpose of the souls was to form a new body for me, but that is unnecessary as long as I have a willing host!"

Tsubasa invoked phrases and incantations, and then the complete shikon no tama entered his body, and Naraku's features began to take over. An arrow whizzed at him, but missed. Kikyo stumbled toward him, losing her strength as she was running low on souls to feed her life force.

"I... will... purify you!" she shouted painfully, but her next arrow missed too. It was uncanny, as she was a brilliant archer that even in her present condition wouldn't miss.

"It's on use. I almost have perfect control of the wind," Naraku explained, "but there is one final stage that must be completed before I truly master it. I am in a hurry, so I will be leaving now. Will you waste the last of your strength chasing me, or will you lie down and admit defeat? Either way, these are your last hours."

It was many hours later when Byaku and Kohaku finally recovered from the poison. When they realized Kikyo had spent the last of her strength healing them, they decided to give her a proper burial. Although it was belated, Byaku finally was able to thank her.

Shihai arrived with Kiara. He had recovered too, but the effects of his battle was obvious. Byaku wanted to treat him further, but he told her not to worry. "There isn't any time," he said. "The wind is changing. It is converging at my home village. It really is the place where the winds meet. There is a legend, that when the wind acts a certain way, the doors to a sacred place will open. That is where all wind originates from. If Naraku enters, he really will have full control of the wind."

The three of them rode on Kiara, to where the winds met. To Shihai, it seemed like the winds were leading him there, like a bird falling into a hunter's trap, and without sufficient strength in its wings to battle the wind and save itself, or its friends. 


	22. Chapter 22

Opening of the Way

When they arrived at the village, nothing seemed out of the ordinary, except for a slight increase in the wind. It was really more of a welcoming breeze of fresh, cool air. Naraku could not be found, and not even his jyaki, evil pressure, could be sensed. It was a normal, peaceful village, with children playing in the streets and adults scanning the markets.

It was hard to believe that this village was doomed to devastation. They decided to ensure that Naraku was actually coming before taking action and disrupting the tranquility of the village.

They made their way to the elder's hut, which too was a semblance of normality, as it had been rebuilt as an exact duplicate of the previous structure. Shihai and his father were reunited warmly, and the elder too shared fears of Naraku's coming. He beckoned the group to follow him into the secret underground chamber.

The torch-lit hallway carried with it a dark atmosphere, finally a rupture from the village's seemingly perfect setting of peace; however, the corridor was quiet with no signs of evil. The elder guided them to the door that Byaku had been unable to open during her first visit. It was this door, the elder explained, that led to the sacred place of the wind's origin.

"Naraku is already inside," he said solemnly. "The world inside is completely barricaded from our own. It is not a place meant for man to trespass. The villagers have no idea of what great power Naraku is congregating within these doors. This village have guarded these doors for many centuries, but now the time has come for these doors to open, and for you brave soldiers to step inside. I'm sure you are all aware of the dangers, but are you truly willing to step inside?"

After everyone agreed, the elder privately instructed Shihai on the ritual to open the door. It was an extremely complicated ritual that he had never heard of, but since everyone was counting on him he told himself that no matter what he would succeed.

He fell into a trance and began the ritual, following the steps exactly as his father had instructed him. Everyone present could feel strange powers begin to rise. The room began to shake, and the hollers of demons could be heard above them.

"There's something wrong!" Byaku noticed.

"No," the elder laughed, "it is going exactly as I planned." The pretence ended, and she sickeningly realized that she had aided Naraku in his path to power. "I was aware of this village's ability to create mirages during certain periods of the wind. If I had complete mastery of the wind, I probably could have kept the charade going for even longer, but it is too late now. You thought the village was safe, but it was in ruins long before you arrived. The ritual is almost complete. Now, thanks to Shihai's ritual, the doors will open."

"I won't let you! Kazanna!"

She didn't care if he released poisonous bees. She was surprised actually that he didn't. Even though he was standing in the direct path of the vacuum, he didn't move. By simply raising his hand, he was somehow protecting himself.

"Did you forget that I can control the wind? Yes, even your kazanna is useless. But this was also part of my plan, because you see, there is yet another advantage of this ritual." The kazanna disappeared from her body, and reappeared on Naraku's right hand. "The reason I put this curse on your family, was because I was not yet ready to control this power. Once I gain the power behind these doors, I will be able to use kazanna to my content, without fear of death. Also, there is one more thing you should know about this ritual: the third advantage was to stall the guardian while I make my entrance. Once I'm inside, please do your best to survive against the guardian. By my calculations, you will have all destroyed each other by the time I'm finished. Goodbye, I did appreciate your help with everything."

He disappeared into the door. The ritual ended and Shihai collapsed. Byaku tried to enter, but the doorway was blocked by a great man with heavy armour and a large battleaxe. "I am the guardian," he echoed, and by simply thrusting his arm forward slightly, a tremendous blast of wind was created sending everyone back to the end of the corridor.

Kohaku and Kiara, however, were blown in a different direction. They got up groggily, somewhat disillusioned by the unimaginable power of the guardian, but still willing to fight him. They were stopped though, when they heard faint cries, coming from what sounded like weak and starving people. Making their way to the dungeon, they found the elder and all of the other villagers.

Kiara began carrying the villagers to safety. "Everyone, you have to go above ground," Kohaku instructed, "you'll be safer there."

The elder refused to go ahead of his people, and stayed behind while Kiara took them back above ground. He also stayed behind to talk to Kohaku: "Is my son fighting?"

"Don't worry, he's with Byaku. She's extraordinarily strong. I'm sure they'll be fine."

"I'm still worried. I knew I should never have taught my son those dark arts."

"Dark arts?"

"I taught him a ritual to summon a wind creature, but in order to control it, he must make a blood contract. By sacrificing his blood, the wind creature is able to manifest; therefore, if the wind creature is destroyed, he will die."

"Don't worry, as soon as all of the villagers are safe, I'll go there personally to ensure that wind creature doesn't lose."

The ritual to summon the wind creature had already begun. Shihai had already made the blood sacrifice, ignoring Byaku's cries of protest.

"Stop!" she begged. "I know what you're doing! My mother told me about the wound on your left leg, but she also told me you didn't want me to worry so I didn't pressure you about it. I'll defeat the guardian! You don't have to make such a crazy risk!"

"You're always the hero," he said calmly. "I'd be lying if I said I was never envious. You made crazy risks all the time, fighting insanely strong monsters because you wanted to protect people. I really admire you. So this time, let me fight."

"I'm not that great! I don't make crazy risks; I'm just arrogant!"

"No, you're confident. You have strength, so you can fight, and you can protect. I want to be like you. I'll admit, that I'm not entirely sure I can win, but I still want to fight. I think there were times when you really thought you might lose, but fought anyway, because you wanted to protect other people. Don't say that's not true, because it is. Everyone praised me for my prodigious skills, but I didn't believe them. Even though I possess all of these skills, I never really valued them myself. I see in you magnificent talents and kindness. Even if you don't think so, I know that they are there."

"I'm sorry. I should have put more faith in you. You were right. There were times when I was afraid, but what made me confident was not my strength, what made me continue fighting against the odds were people, like you, people that I wanted to protect, people that believed in me. Now I believe in you. I don't want alone, because I still think you're too weak, and I don't want to fight alone either, because I'm afraid, so we'll fight together."

She entered the ritual, and cut her own wrist. They held hands, and energy from both of their bodies began to swirl into a double helix, and this time, when the wind creature was summoned, it was complete, with both of its wings.

Holding hands, he stood, and together, they mustered all of their will into the black angel, as it charged fearlessly at the guardian. There was a great explosion, and feathers began to flutter, but fade before hitting the floor. They now stood at the entrance to the sacred grounds, and the guardian was gone, but Shihai suddenly collapsed and let go of her hand.

"Shihai!" she scrambled. "Are you okay? Please, answer."

"I'll be fine," he coughed weakly. "Go after him. You can't let anyone control the wind. I realize now that the wind isn't a monster; it doesn't try to trick us or attack us or tell us what to do. That wind creature, responded most strongly when we were together, so even when you pass through those doors, I'll still be with you, believing in you. I'm sure that if I ask the wind, it will carry my prayers to you, and give you my strength. No matter how terrible his wind is, you and I, will defeat it."

He forced himself to stand, putting strenuous pressure on his left leg, and pushed Byaku through the door. The door closed, allowing him to lean against it for support. He breathed heavily, as he watched the guardian once again rise.

"What took you so long?" he laughed painfully, as he knew the guardian was not yet defeated.

"I am the guardian," he bellowed. "There are two, no, three trespassers in the sacred grounds. I will punish them."

"Sorry, but you'll have to get through me first." 


	23. Chapter 23

Wound of the Wind

Inside the doors, it was hard to believe that the wind wasn't a monster. Byaku was hiking up a steep mountain, against a wind so fierce it actually was piercing her skin. She forced herself to continue walking, but the wind caused a gigantic boulder to fall and crush her shoulder. Her footing slipped, and she began to fall down the mountain's steep slope, and just managed to save herself by planting hiraikotsu in the ground.

She regained her balance, and made her way to the mountain's summit. From the peak, she had a clear view of a village. From so high, the village looked small and insignificant. She saw from her vantage point, winds gathering and destroying the village. Even though she was high and far away, the vision of a young boy crying as the wind terrorized his family and the other villagers was so vivid to her, as though it were in her mind.

A fog swirled to the wind's content, sweeping across the village, and it disappeared as thought it were never there. She had seen enough, experienced enough, felt enough - she was bleeding from her climb up the mountain, and all her effort surmised into the tragic vision of a destroyed village. It was hard not to believe that the wind was a monster.

"Beautiful, isn't it," Naraku remarked disgustingly, appearing behind her. "This monstrous power I possess - it's truly magnificent. With this power, people, villages - everything in this world is below me."

"You don't deserve this power!" she shouted, and attacked with hiraikotsu. Naraku, with his absolute control of the wind, was able to direct the boomerang's course and sent it back at her. She took the blow in her chest, sending her against a tall boulder. Wind pressure pinned her to the boulder, and when the pressure ended, she collapsed as though the wind had taken all of her strength from her.

She used hiraikotsu as a support to stand again, and tried using her father's talisman charms to erect a barrier against the wind. They provided temporary relief, since the barrier relied on four charms being planted firmly in the ground. The wind easily blew them away, and destroyed the barrier.

She was lifted into the air, along with boulders broken from the mountain side. He used the wind to cause the boulders to bash her from every direction, bruising her body and breaking her bones. Satisfied, he let her fall back onto the mountain, and watched with pleasure her pitiful and painful state.

"What a fitting way to finish you," he laughed evilly, as he unleashed the kazanna.

She planted hiraikotsu into the ground and held onto it desperately.

Suddenly, Naraku's left arm grabbed onto his right, trying to seal the kazanna. "What are you doing?" Naraku shouted angrily.

"I am Tsubasa, the one to control the wind!" - was the reply.

Shihai was taking a severe beating from the guardian. He had incredible will and courage at that moment, but that alone could not stand up to the guardian's raw strength. He felt a heavy boot crush his body, breaking several of his ribs. The guardian lifted his battleaxe high above his head, like the emotionless executioner that follows only orders.

Before the battleaxe's swoop was complete, Kiara intercepted, and sitting on her back was Kohaku blocking it by crossing his katana and hidden sword. It took incredible power, will, and concentration from his young body to successfully halt the stroke, but the guardian was forced to lift the axe to gather more strength.

Kohaku placed the limp Shihai behind him on Kiara, and they fled to a safe distance. "Where's Byaku?" Kohaku asked.

"She's inside," Shihai forced out through the pain. "I have to wait for her. I'm the only one that can open the gate. If I don't, she'll be trapped in there forever. I have to defeat the guardian."

"It's not just you that cares about her. Kiara and I also want to fight with her. We'll all be waiting for her, when she comes back through those doors."

The guardian's tone seemed to become somewhat more human: "You wish to fight me, because a friend awaits you on the other side of these doors?"

"That's right."

"I had begun to forget, that people like you ever existed. I am a wind creature, but the one who forged the blood contract with me long has forgotten about me. He left me here, so I've been guarding these doors ever since. I was summoned by a young boy, much like you, a while ago. He enjoyed playing in the wind, in the sacred grounds, but a wise man declared that the wind was too dangerous, and sealed the sacred grounds with these doors. The boy was crushed. The wind was his best friend. He vowed to return here one day. An evil man tainted his mind, and he decided that he would return here and control the wind. The wind was always waiting for someone, crying, and as time passed it became violent. I want the wind, to return to its true state, the wind that brought that young boy his happiness."

After opening the doors, he lifted his battleaxe, and crushed his own helmet. His body crumbled, and disappeared into nothingness.

Tsubasa felt his body begin to crumble, and disappear into nothingness. His last thoughts were filled with fear. The wind before him was treacherous and terrifying, not at all like the playful wind he once dreamed of being reunited with.

"Humans are unreliable hosts," Naraku said, enraged, as he formed a puppet from the shikon no tama. "That is why I originally wanted to use the souls from Kanna's mirror to create a false body. It doesn't matter. I will find a new host. I still have control of the wind! The kazanna will finish you!"

Hiraikotsu lost its stance, and Byaku was mere seconds away from the end. She could hear it, the tears of the wind. They were no different from the tears of men. She heard the wind, mourning the loss of Tsubasa, who in his childhood would play in the wind all the time. She heard the wind crying, crying for freedom from Naraku's control. She could see the wound of the wind.

"Kaze no kizu!" she shouted, as she exerted all of her strength into one final attack with hiraikotsu. The wind blew in every direction, originating from Naraku, shredding his body. The kazanna exploded, becoming his grave. The wind became calm, purifying the shikon no tama before returning it to Byaku.

She suddenly fell from the mountain top, but the wind decided to slow her fall, allowing Shihai, riding on Kiara with Kohaku, to catch her. They smiled, once again holding hands. 


End file.
